Learning To Love
by wolfishgirl
Summary: Calypso Kinnear has been lost for a long time.    Since her fifth birthday, her life began falling apart. She decided to never love again. It was easy to do...    Until she met Jacob Black: a charming, handsome boy who seemed bent on making her love him.
1. Prologue

Do you know what it feels like to live without love? To have the very few reasons you have to exist disappear before you could even vow to never let them go?

It feels endless.

It feels like tumbling forever into a pit of nothingness, somersaulting and twirling mid-fall and trying madly to grasp hold of lifelines that aren't there. It feels like walking into a cold, dark tunnel that isn't close to ending and never will be. It feels like standing in a wall of flames, screaming for help as you watch your skin blister and blacken and crumple under the heat's hot tongues, but never dying; never seeing help coming.

It feels like your mother charging at you ready to kill; your brother sitting in the corner oblivious to the world.

This is why I don't want to love. This is why I don't want to feel like a human and not a soulless monster anymore. Why I refuse to let anyone take me into their arms and make me feel invincible. I don't want to feel whole and safe and finally at peace…

Only to forever fall into a pit of nothingness once again.


	2. The Runaway

"_Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about."_  
><em>-Marilyn Monroe<em>

I walked from the airport out into the freezing cold rain in only my dark wash jeans with a white t-shirt and white sneakers on. I had nothing else with me but $500—the money I had saved up in order to one day run away from the hell hole I used to call a home. I had finally had enough. Tonight—well, last night; now it was two thirty in the morning—I couldn't even get to sleep. I was up all night thinking about my poor mother in that stupid mental institution, probably in a straightjacket. I kept envisioning her in one of those padded, square rooms, the walls getting smaller and smaller until she finally couldn't breathe, suffocated and died.

I jerked my eyes open. I had had this dream every night for the past twelve years. Then I had smelled my stupid brother's pot smoke leaking in from the hallway under my door and up my nose, and heard my father giggling in the bedroom next door with some woman who wasn't my mother. Some…nightwalker…whom he had paid to spend the night with him and make him "happy" again. What I didn't understand was while he was selling all that cocaine and meth to people, why he didn't just smoke that stuff himself? It would've given him the exact same kind of "happiness" he got from those disgusting women—no. I couldn't bring myself to call them women. I knew them as homewreckers.

I heard my father in the next room giggling with his homewrecker-for-the-night and I had had it. I got out of bed, put on some clothes, grabbed my $1,027 saved up in a wooden chest under my bed and walked out. My dad's bedroom door was closed and he was too distracted to hear me get out of bed and walk down the hall. And it was pitiful how easy it was to sneak by Brandon's room. He was so jacked up on weed, he was too preoccupied with a spider to hear me walk down the hall. I walked down the stairs and through the living room. I opened the door and walked outside, letting the noise of Brooklyn, New York fill my ears and the cool wind hit my face. And now here I was.

Standing outside of an airport in Port Angeles, Washington, shivering by how cold it was. I figured I needed a ride, but hardly anyone was here. I didn't have my cell phone on me; it would've been too easy for Brandon to find me if I took it, if he ever started caring enough to look. I looked around and the only person I saw who could possibly give me a ride was some buff dude with wavy dark hair. He was sitting inside of his cherry red Jeep Wrangler, talking on his cell phone with somebody. I took a deep breath and walked up to his car. He didn't notice me approach, so I had to knock on the driver side window.

He looked up and frowned at me. I saw him say, "Hold on, one moment," without peeling his eyes off of mine. He then rolled down the window and said, "Can I help you?" He was obviously a little taken aback.

"Hi," I started confidently. "Is there any way I can get a ride?" I asked. He blinked at me and then let his face relax a little.

"What the hell," he said, starting to smile a little. "Get in," he ordered. I smiled and walked over to the other side of the car and slid into the passenger seat. He held the phone back up to his ear and started talking to the person once again. "Carlisle, I think I'm gonna be home a little later than I thought," he told the person on the other line. "Alright," he said. "I'll see you later."

He then hung up his phone and smiled at me, and that was when I realized how stunningly beautiful he was. His teeth practically glowed in the dark and they were so straight, I was almost positive they had to be sharp. "Hi, there," he said in a voice that was one of the most magnificently intriguing ones I had ever heard in my life.

"Hi," I repeated. He started the car and we began driving out of the airport. As soon as we were on the road however, he began driving like a maniac. I was positive he was going more than twice the speed limit and was barely stopping at the red lights, but I didn't say anything. I simply raised my eyebrows and watched the humble town pass.

"So where to, little lady?" he asked, looking away from the road to smile at me. I shrugged and looked at him.

"Take me as far as you can go," I requested. He gave a mischievous smile.

"I know exactly where that is," he replied. And with that, he punched the gas harder than ever before, making me jerk back in my chair and stare with wide eyes at the road. He saw my expression and laughed, which I didn't think was funny. I was starting to wish I had gotten in the car with someone I was less likely to die with.

"How do you pay for this car?" I asked him.

"Huh?" he muttered.

"I mean what with all the tickets you must get and all," I taunted, now looking at the boy.

"I've only been stopped three times," he said matter-of-factly. "And all three times, I've managed to charm my way out of trouble," he said. I shrugged. It wasn't too hard to believe.

"All female officers?" I asked.

He gave a naughty smirk and said, "One male."

I laughed a little at that, and he winked at me. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window once again. "So what's your name, beautiful?" he asked.

"Calypso," I answered. He raised his eyebrows, impressed.

"Like Calypso from The Odyssey?" he questioned.

"The same," I smirked.

"Sexy…" he purred jokingly. I laughed.

"What about you?" I inquired.

"Emmett," he answered. I nodded and gave a big yawn. "Oh!" he said, grinning at me. "Little kitten's tired, huh?" I leaned my head against my hand, closed my eyes and nodded. "Oh," he said, now sounding almost sorry. "Well, we're almost there," he promised. I had just realized that we weren't in Port Angeles anymore.

"Where are we?" I asked him as I marveled at the quiet little town.

"Forks, Washington. One of the rainiest places in the country," he answered grinning.

"Mmm! Great…" I said sarcastically. He tilted his head back and laughed, making me laugh.

"You reminded me of Bella just then," he muttered to himself.

"Who?" I asked.

"Oh, no one," he insisted, now talking clearly. "So where did you come from?" he asked. My heart seemed to twist in my chest a little as he asked that question.

"I'd rather not talk about it," I told him honestly. He nodded.

"I understand," he said. "What about just yourself in general? Like…what's your favorite color?" he asked in a rather friendly manner.

"Yellow," I told him.

"Yellow?" he repeated. He scrunched up his face and stuck out his tongue, gagging a little.

"Everybody does that!" I giggled.

"Why?" he laughed.

"Yellow represents optimism. Hope. I need some of that in my life," I explained. He nodded.

"Okay. What's your favorite food?" he now asked. I frowned.

"Uh…Kraft Mac and Cheese," I said.

"What?" Emmett gasped. "That's the worst favorite food ever!" I laughed. "C'mon, for real though. Like, baked chicken? Peach cobbler? Tacos?" I shook my head.

"I haven't had too many home-cooked meals in my life." He looked over at me and scrutinized my profile as I looked out the rainy windshield.

"You're a runaway," he stated, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I didn't really react.

"Yeah. So?" I challenged, afraid he was going to turn me in to the town police or something.

"Rebel, huh?" he grinned as he looked back at the road. I chuckled.

"Yeah, except not really," I teased. He slammed to a stop in the middle of the road, quite suddenly. "Where are we?" I asked him as I looked out the window.

"The end of Forks and the beginning of the La Push Reservation. The border," he said, staring mutinously into the distant darkness.

"You can't go onto the Reservation?" I asked his profile. "Why not?"

"Family reasons…" he answered vaguely. He then peeled his eyes away from whatever he seemed to be staring at. He turned to look at me and sighed.

"Well, I guess this is 'See ya later'," he said. I nodded. Then, I didn't know what had really come over me, but I leaned over and hugged him tight. He seemed to be a little hesitant at first, but then he wrapped his arms around me and hugged me back. Nobody had shown me kindness like this in a long, long time. I couldn't really remember the last time I had really hugged someone. I thought it was about three years ago, the last time I had seen Brandon not high.

Choking back my tears, I whispered, "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he whispered back.

We both sat there, hugging each other for a minute, until I said, "You're really cold." And I wasn't exaggerating. Hugging him reminded me of hugging a big marble sculpture. He laughed. Squeezing each other once more before we let go, we released each other and smiled. "See ya later," I said.

"See ya later," he repeated. Then, with one last smile, I slid out of the car and began walking down the road. I saw Emmett's headlights still on, and I knew he was still there.

Then, I heard his door open and he shouted "Hey Calypso!" I turned around and brushed a soft piece of hair behind my ear. "Be careful," he said. "And that's an order." I smiled and saluted him.

"Aye, aye cap'n," I promised. He saluted me as well before he closed his door and drove off. I looked toward the woods and stared at it as I felt the raindrops pounding heavily on my head. My black, wavy hair was once again plastered to my chocolate brown face and I was soaked through to my underwear. I started toward the woods when I heard a wolf howl. Stopping in my tracks, I turned and looked at the full moon.

I gulped. "Lara Croft would do it," I said. Lara Croft was a poorly proportioned but kick ass video game heroine from my favorite video game, "Tomb Raider." I took a deep breath and proceeded into the thick, unfamiliar woods.

* * *

><p>I was scratched and scathed and had deeply cut my leg in my back calf wandering through this damn forest. I had to take off my jacket and wrap it tight around the wound, though I still seemed to be losing a lot of blood. The only good choice about deciding to go marching through the woods like Peter Pan and the Lost Boys was the fact that the thick foliage provided shelter from the ever-falling rain. The only thing that had kept me going was the fact that anywhere—even here—was better than "home." After I had been hiking for a couple of hours, I leaned against a tree to rest.<p>

And didn't I see this exact same tree the first time around? I plunked my head against the trunk again and whispered, "This was stupid." So I got up, and started to wander again. After another hour and a half, I was extremely exhausted and starting to feel a little dizzy and faint and…nauseous. I felt my jaw begin to tighten and my stomach begin to gurgle and twist and turn like a professional acrobat. I started to gag. "No, Calypso. Hold it back. You can do it. You can do it…" I quietly murmured to myself.  
>I then felt a little vomit try to rise out of my mouth, which I swallowed back down, but even that was too much. "I can't do it, I can't do it," I said in a normal speaking voice now, shaking my head. I began to run, looking for some place to throw up. When I finally couldn't hold it in anymore, I leaned over a fallen log and puked to my heart's content. "Ugh," I muttered. The smell was wretched and I had to wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I couldn't help but glance at it. I gagged again. "Gross," I groaned, wiping it on my pants. I then started off once more.<p>

After about fifty more minutes, I felt just about ready to die. I shouldn't really have expected much though. I hadn't had food or water in the past fifteen hours, I was operating on three hours of sleep and I was the coldest I had ever been in my life. Just then, I tripped over some rock. I grunted as I went down and fell in a puddle of mud…but I didn't get up. I lay there, my eyes closed, my leg bleeding profusely now that my jacket had fallen off and I figured this was my dying place. There was just one more thing I had to do before I left this world forever.

"_Smile, when your heart is aching…_" I began to sing softly, my eyes still closed. This was the song my mother used to sing to me whenever I was sad. I would sit in her lap and listen to her heartbeat and feel the hum of her chest as she sang and stroked my hair.

"_Smile, even though it's breaking. Though there are clouds in the sky. You'll get by…_" We weren't quite sure where we'd learned the song from. We just knew it was the best at making our tears stop, our minds clearer and our hearts lighter.

"_If you smile through your pain and sorrow. Smile, and maybe tomorrow you'll see the sun come shining through for you…_"

I began to cry as I went on. "_Light up your face with gladness. Hide every trace of sadness. Although a tear may be ever so near…_"

Now I was sobbing, my tears leaving their marks on my cheeks before they seeped into the moist forest ground.

"_That's the time you must keep on trying. Smile, what's the use of crying. You'll find that life is still worthwhile…_" I let out one last heart-breaking sob before finishing.

"_If you just smile._"

I was done. I had finished the song. "I tried mama," I sobbed pathetically, my nose running and everywhere on me hurting. "But it's so hard to smile when your heart is broken."

And then everything blacked out.


	3. Imprinting

"_Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things can fall together."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

My eyes slowly fluttered open as I looked around the dim, unfamiliar room. My head was pounding, but I felt something cold moving around on it too. I looked straight above me and saw a toffee colored face above mine, gazing at me intently. I almost started when I saw the marred half of her face. It looked like she had been mauled by a bear. But I could tell that she was once amazingly beautiful, and still retained some of that beauty. She smiled at me and took the ice pack away from my head. "Well, look who's up," she said, sitting up straight.

I squinted my eyes at her and asked, "Where am I?"

"My fiancé found you fainted in the woods," she said, now frowning at me. "What in the world were you doing wandering those woods at night?" she questioned suspiciously. "Don't you know those woods are dangerous?" I rubbed my head tenderly and closed my eyes.

"Lara Croft would have done it…" was my only explanation.

"What were you looking for?" she asked me. I opened my eyes and looked at her, frowning slightly.

"I don't really know," I admitted. "I guess I just wanted some kind of adventure. But that probably wasn't the smartest idea, huh?" The woman shook her head and grinned.

"Let me take your temperature honey," she requested, reaching for the thermometer on the bedside table. I looked at her as she gently slid it under my tongue. She watched it intently as the numbers climbed. 84…92…99…

"101 degrees," she said as the thermometer beeped and she pulled it from my mouth. "You're going down," she informed me, turning the thermometer off and placing it back on the polished wooden table.

"Going down?" I whispered hoarsely, sitting up on the bed. "How sick was I?"

"When Sam brought you in, you were at 107 degrees," she stated.

"Oh," I muttered. I looked down at my body and saw that I was in blue flannel pajamas, the gouge on my calf bandaged.

"I used to be a nurse, so I administered some medicine. You probably won't remember though."

"What's your name?" the woman asked me after I didn't respond.

"Calypso," I answered. "Calypso Kinnear. What about you?"

"Emily Clearwater. How old are you?"

"I'm seventeen and from Brooklyn, New York. I ran away from home, but I'm not going to tell you why," I said, answering several questions at once.

"Okay," she said. "Now whaddya say to a shower and some breakfast, huh?" I grinned and nodded. We got up and she showed me to the bathroom.

After I had taken an hour long shower, and gotten dressed in some of Emily's clothes. I walked downstairs, my head still pounding. I smelled eggs, bacon and pancakes and as soon as I sat down, a plate of breakfast along with a glass of orange juice was placed in front of me. "Eat up," Emily said, waving the spatula at me as she went back to cooking some more. I ate like I had never eaten before. I started out cutting my pancakes, but before long I had placed the bacon and eggs on top of the pancakes, poured some syrup on, then rolled it up and ate it like a burrito.

Emily looked over at me. "You're enjoying that breakfast, huh?" I smiled and nodded at her, my mouth dripping with syrup as I kept chewing. My stomach was churning a quite a bit, but I figured it was just because I was still hungry. She grinned.

"But don't eat too fast," she warned. Just as she said that, I felt a little bit of bile rise in my throat. My jaws began to tighten once again and my throat contracted.

"Oh god," I muttered. I sprinted upstairs to the bathroom and got to the toilet just in time to shove my head in and puke up all my breakfast. "Ohhh…" I moaned as I crawled away from the toilet. I sat up against the wall, panting with my eyes closed. I sat there for a few minutes before I dragged myself up to flush the toilet and walk back downstairs. Emily placed a bowl of hot broth before me this time.

"How bout we start out light, huh?" I nodded and began to slowly slurp down the yummy liquid. I heard the door open and a big, very muscular man walked in, without a shirt on. He was the same color as Emily with brown eyes, and quite intimidating.

"How's our guest doing?" he asked Emily in a kind voice while looking at me. She turned the stove off and put one hand on her hip as she turned to face Sam. She looked at me.

"Well, she recently decided to share her partially digested breakfast with the toilet." The man laughed as he went to hug Emily. He held her tenderly and lightly kissed her lips, but even that small action seemed to fill the room with enough love to end a war. I had to look away, feeling like I was intruding on something sacred and special. I began to drink my broth once again as the man sat next to me. "Calypso, this is Sam, my fiancé," she said introducing the man. "Sam, this is Calypso." Sam reached out his big hand for me to shake.

I was a little scared to shake it, thinking he might break my hand, but he turned out to be quite gentle. As soon as our hands touched, I found that it was a little warmer than mine, even with my abnormally high temperature. "So you're the one who found me in the woods, huh?" I asked him. He nodded.

"Yeah," he answered. "I was hiking when I found you lying on the ground in the mud. Luckily, you were breathing, but only barely, so I carried you back here. Emily's been caring for you since then."

"How long was I asleep?" I asked him.

"About twenty-six hours," Emily answered, now sitting on the other side of me. I raised my eyebrows. I slept a lot, but I had never slept for over a day before. I finished off my broth and laid my head down on the table, closing my eyes.

"Are you tired?" she asked me. "Do you wanna go to your room and sleep?"

"My room?" I said, opening my eyes and looking at her.

"Well yours for now, yes," she answered, smiling.

"Huh," I muttered. I closed my eyes again. "No. Not really. I actually kinda wanna do something today." I heard Sam get up and walk somewhere.

"What did you have in mind?" she said as I heard cereal being poured into a bowl.

"Clothes?" I asked. "I don't have any clothes," I told her, closing my eyes again.

"Didn't you pack anything when you left?" she asked me incredulously. I shook my head.

"No. It would've been too loud and taken up too much time. I just had to get out of there," I explained.

"Get out of where?" Sam asked as he sat back down next to me and began eating his breakfast.

"Her home," Emily said, answering for me. "She's a runaway."

"Not my home," I corrected, opening my eyes and sitting up to look at her. "The place I lived with the people who are related to me. Not my home."

Emily scrutinized my face, obviously trying to decipher whether this was me being a teenage drama queen or if I had a real problem in that place. "It was that bad, huh?" Sam asked from beside me. I looked at him and sighed.

"Can we go shopping today, or what?" I asked, turning back to face Emily. I didn't mean to be rude, but I was a little upset that they seemed to be brushing off my running away as typical teenage behavior.

"Yes," Emily finally answered. "Go get some shoes and a coat out of my closet, and we'll be on our way." I nodded and headed up the stairs to Emily's room and got ready to go.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Jacob's Point of View<strong>_

I watched as Paul rummaged through the wooden cabinets, looking for food. "Paul, why are you such a pig?" I asked him from the table, eating a large blueberry muffin.

"Shut up! You have food, I want some too!" he retorted as he went back to scavenging.

"Sam, where's Emily?" Quil asked from the counter next to the sink as he munched on a piece of toast and jam.

"Shopping," Sam answered simply without looking up from his crossword puzzle.

"For food?" Embry asked, looking up from his bowl of cereal. Sam placed his pen down next to the crossword puzzle and looked up at Embry.

"No, Embry. For clothes. In Port Angeles," he specified irritatedly.

"Since when does she go shopping for clothes?" Paul asked, sitting down in a chair backwards, eating an un-toasted S'mores Pop Tart. Sam sighed and looked up from his crossword puzzle at Paul.

"Not for herself. For our guest," he said, trying extremely hard to restrain himself from yelling at all of us.

"You guys have a guest?" Jared asked, coming out of the bathroom. He grabbed a hunk of orange cheddar cheese from the fridge and began to devour it. Sam let out a big huff and looked up from his crossword puzzle yet again. I was watching him get more and more frustrated with much more enthusiasm than should have been occurring. I had to hide a smile behind my hand.

"I could have sworn I just said that," he said, glaring at Jared. Jared just blinked at him and kept eating his cheese while staring at Sam with a blank face. I had to stifle a laugh with my hand. Seth was opening his mouth to say something else when Sam threw a nearby fork at his head with such force that when Seth dodged it, it stuck into the wall behind his head.

"No more questions," Sam whispered under his breath. He didn't say anything out loud, but we could all hear his thoughts. _Stupid kids…eating all my food…too curious…they need to mind their own damn business, _Sam thought.

_It's kinda hard to mind our own damn business when you're thinking so loud_, Paul said.

_I wasn't thinking too loud; you kids are just NOSY!_Sam retaliated.

_Now, now Sam. No need to get so upset…_ I cautioned tauntingly. Sam looked from his crossword puzzle to my grinning face. He let out a small whimper as he broke his pen in two, the black ink coming out all over his hands. He put his head against the table and rolled it back and forth.

The pack had just recently discovered how to read each other's minds outside of our wolfy forms. It didn't stretch as far as it did when we were changed; it only went up to about 400 feet. But one bonus of it was that we could actually turn this little function on and off as we pleased. It was hard at first, the same way keeping ourselves from phasing was hard too. Eventually, though, everybody got the hang of it.

"I wish Emily were here," he groaned aloud, getting up to wash his hands in the sink. Just then, Emily's car pulled into the driveway and everyone glanced out the window, then looked back at Sam.

"Ask and you shall receive," Jared said. Emily was the first one to come in, carrying a large Nordstroms bag, a Claire's bag, a JCPenney's bag, a Macy's bag, a Victoria's Secret bag and a Cinnabon bag. She set them all down on the table small yellow table that almost seemed to buckle from the weight.

"Ooh! Cinnabons!" Quil said, starting to reach for the bag.

"Ah!" Emily said, smacking him hard on the hand. He withdrew it.

"What?" he asked, rubbing his poor, stinging appendage.

"These are not for you! These are for me and Calypso," she said to him. Sam came to give Emily a hug and kiss which she gratefully accepted. Afterwards, she looked up at him and said, "Calypso and I are gonna have a girls' night tonight. I'm so excited! You know I've always wanted a daughter and now here she is!" Emily gushed.

She began to take a peek in all the bags. "She just comes out of nowhere, practically falls from the sky like a freaking angel," she ranted. She was obviously very excited about this girl. "Oh! And her mother's like, completely out of the picture for whatever reason, so she needs a motherly figure in her life and I'm just the girl to do it! Isn't great? God, she's just so wonderful, Sam. Once you get to know her, you're going to love her." she asked, turning to Sam once again. He just laughed.

"It's perfect, honey," he agreed with her. Just then, the girl walked through the door carrying tons of shopping bags…and she was the most magnificent creature to ever walk the earth. Emily was wrong. She wasn't like an angel. She was an angel. The rest of the world seemed to stop moving as she walked to table to set her bags next to Emily's. Suddenly all my worries about that one girl I used to like became insignificant. All I wanted to do was make all of Calypso's troubles and fears go away with a kiss.

What was that other girls name again? Britney? Benita?

_Bella,_ Seth thought. _Her name's Bella._

Bella. That's right. But she no longer mattered. I had to stomp on my foot to stop myself from getting up to go whisk Calypso away from everyone else. I wanted her to be mine and only mine. I wouldn't share her with anyone. Not even Emily.

_Jeez Jake. Don't get so overprotective. Just about every other person in this room wants to bang her just as much as you do, soo…_Quil teased. I whipped my head towards him and glowered.

_If you even think about touching her, I swear to you, you will be running past the Mexican border hairless with three paws, one ear and your mangled tail between your bloodied legs,_I threatened menacingly. Quil just raised his eyebrows, smirked and went back to looking at my future wife.

"Oh, wow, there are people in here," she said aloud. Her voice was the most beautiful thing to ever touch my ears. It was like a perfect symphony of bells and birds and each word was sacred and worth keeping with me forever.

"These are the annoying kids who follow me everywhere, like puppies," Sam said, glaring at all of us. She smiled and it seemed to fill the room, making her happiness reach everybody. I could've sworn even Paul sat up a little straighter when he saw her smile and I realized that that was my new goal in life. To make Calypso smile.

"I'm Calypso," she said with a wave, her mellifluous voice once again filling my ears. Everyone went around the circle and introduced themselves. I didn't even notice when it was my turn, I was too busy memorizing every detail of her flawless face.

"Hey!" Embry said, now throwing a spoon at me. I didn't dodge it however. It hit me in the head.

"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing my temple where the spoon hit me. I took my eyes from Calypso's wondrous face to glare at Embry. I then looked back at her, still rubbing the spot on my head.

"I'm Jacob," I said simply.

"Nice to meet you," she smiled.

_Yes!_ I thought. _She thinks it was nice to meet me!_

_Calm down, loverboy_, Paul ordered. _I think she was saying that in general._

"Well, these Cinnabons are still hot," Emily said. "Wanna grab us a glass of milk?" she asked Calypso.

"Sure thing," she said as Emily tromped up the stairs with all the bags she carried in, minus the Victoria's Secret bag. Calypso glided to the refrigerator and opened it. She had to bend over to get the milk and I couldn't help but notice her perfectly shaped backside.

_Oh, well isn't that nice…_I thought to myself.

Sam smacked me upside the head, knocking me out of my trance. _I know it's hard at times like these, but try thinking with the brain that's in your head and not the second brain that resides between your legs,_Sam advised. I nodded and rubbed the back of my head, averting my eyes to the table. When I heard the refrigerator door close, I looked up one more time. She poured the milk into two glasses and then put the milk away again. This time, I admired her behind from the corner of my eye taking care to temporarily turn my thoughts off so Sam wouldn't hear me.

She then grabbed all the Hot Topic bags, but forgot the Victoria's Secret one and went up the stairs, two at a time. As soon as we heard her door close, everyone grinned at me.

"Aww…" Embry started. "Wittle Jakey's finally impwinted …" he teased in a mock voice.

"Shut up," I ordered him.

"Sam! Jake threatened me!" Quil whined, pointing at me and frowning at Sam.

"Yeah Jake, that was kinda scary," Seth said, smiling at me. Paul was staring at the pink striped Victoria's Secret bag.

"What are you thinking about?" Jared asked Paul.

"I'm thinking we should find out what's in that bag…" he said aloud.

"Paul, no," Sam ordered. "They'll be back down for it in just a second."

"Whose do you think it is?" Paul wondered aloud. "Emily's or Calypso's?"

"Paul…" Sam warned.

"I think it's Calypso's," he said. He then looked at me and narrowed his eyes, smirking evilly. "She seems like she's willing to get a little freaky if you know what I mean…" My blood pressure seemed to sky rocket as my heart began pumping extremely fast.

"Paul, I swear to God…" I hissed at him. He just grinned at me, then got up to look in the bag. Just as he was beginning to open it, a brown hand darted out and snatched it from the table. Calypso clutched it tightly to her shapely chest, smirking at Paul.

"That would be mine," she said as she backed away. She then turned and walked up the stairs once more.

"Well that answers that question," Paul said, smirking.

"Go screw yourself Paul," I told him.

"Is Calypso allowed to come help me?" he taunted, cocking an eyebrow. I shot out of my chair, the sound of the legs screeching across the floor and echoing around the room.

"Watch it, Paul!" Sam ordered. Paul just grinned at me but obeyed. Nobody could defy the command of the Alpha. I stared him down as I sat slowly in my chair. "And Jacob, you're gonna have to stay fairly level-headed about this whole thing," Sam informed me.

"Yeah, raping is not allowed," Jared teased. I smirked and looked down at my hands. I wouldn't rape her, but I definitely wouldn't mind doing something consensual…

Sam sighed. He had obviously heard my thoughts. "Look, I know you're eighteen now and your gonna start having some…uh…how do I say this…" he muttered.

"Feelings," Quil contributed.

"Those," Sam said. I chuckled and shook my head. "But you need to learn to control them." I nodded. "You boys all go home," he ordered uncomfortably. We all got up from where ever we were sitting and began to walk out the front door.

"Oh, and Sam?" Paul said before he left. Sam looked at him. "Guys don't have two brains. We only have one. And that's the one that resides between our legs." Sam smiled, rolled his eyes and headed upstairs while Paul earned a round of high-fives from everyone, including me.


	4. Can I Drive?

"_If you can make a girl laugh, you can make her do anything."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

I opened my eyes the next morning and looked at the large pile of clothes on my floor. I smiled. I had tried on every garment and modeled each one for Emily last night. She seemed to be very excited about it and even took pictures on her new camera. Then we had eaten the Cinnabons and did each other's nails while talking about nothing in particular. It was finally Saturday and I figured all the boys would be downstairs. That one boy, Jacob, seemed to be very interested in me when I got home last night. I wondered why as I got dressed.

"What to wear, what to wear…" I hummed to myself as I dragged myself off the bed and to the clothes. I selected some light wash skinny jeans that were ripped again and again all the way up the leg from the ankle to my hip, and a blue and white striped, one shoulder shirt. I grabbed all my clothes and walked across the hall to the surprisingly empty bathroom. I locked the door, set my clothes on the floor and hopped into the shower. I let the warm water run over my body as I thoroughly washed my long black hair, courtesy of my white maternal grandmother, the only reason a black chick like me had hair like Pocahontas.

After I was done showering, I dried myself off with a white towel and got dressed in the bathroom. I then hung up my towel and went back to my room. I decided to wear blue and white hightops with my outfit today. Pulling my hair back into a neat, high ponytail, I went downstairs.

My prediction was correct; all six of the overgrown boys were crowded around the adorably tiny yellow table that always seemed to have bright wildflowers in the middle of it. "Good morning, sleepyhead," Emily greeted me with a smile. I returned it and she kissed me on the cheek as I went over to her to grab a plate of breakfast.

"Morning," I replied smiling. I couldn't remember the last time someone had kissed me good morning. It must have been years. "Morning, boys," I greeted as I sat down at the table between Paul and Seth. That Jacob boy was staring at me again.

"Morning?" Jared said. I frowned at him as I chewed my food. "You do know it's 12:30 in the afternoon?" he asked me. I looked at the clock on the wall.

"Huh," I said in uninterested acknowledgment. I then went back to eating my breakfast.

"Do you always sleep that late?" Quil asked me. I shrugged my shoulders as I continued to cut my pancakes.

"Depends on how late I stay up," I countered.  
>"So I don't mean to sound rude," Embry started, leaning forward, his elbows on the table. "But who are you?" he asked simply.<p>

"Embry!" Jacob, Sam and Emily scolded at the same time.

"What?" he said, shrugging his shoulders. I just laughed.

"I'm a runaway," I told him simply. "I had to get away from my crazy family in Brooklyn."

"Brooklyn?" Seth said from beside me. "That's across the country!" he said. I nodded.

"The farther, the better," I said, trying to keep the bitter tone out of my voice.

"So your family sucks ass, huh?" Paul asked from my other side.

"Not my family," I corrected. "The people I'm genetically related to. Those people suck ass." Everyone just looked at me in silence. At least the boys weren't brushing off my running away as teenage behavior.

"Well it sounds like you're gonna be staying in La Push for quite a while, huh?" Sam asked. I shrugged as I drank down some of my milk. "Have you thought about school?"

"Ugh. I guess," I said.

"Well summer's almost over for the boys," Emily stated. "You could go to school with them."

"You guys all go to the same school?" I asked them.

"Only one school to go to," Embry shrugged.

"Well technically, two," Jacob corrected. "La Push High School and Forks High School."

"But Forks High is just filled with a bunch of white kids," Paul pointed out. "There's like, three Asians, four black kids and two Hispanics."

"So whaddya say?" Emily asked, turning off the stove and pulling up a chair next to Jacob.

"You wanna go to school here? It starts in a week." Everybody was staring at me, waiting for me to make a decision.

As if he could read my mind, when I caught Jacob's eye, he mouthed, "No pressure." I smiled at him, then looked down at the table.

"Okay," I said, looking back up at Sam and Emily. "I'm up for it." Sam smiled.

"Great," he said. "Now we just have to get you enrolled and you'll be good to go."

"I'm bored," I said.

"Well whaddya wanna do?" Quil asked.

"Think of us as your fun slaves," Jared said, making me laugh.

"I kinda wanna go on a tour," I admitted.

"Well Forks is off limits," Jared said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Family reasons…" Jacob answered. He was reminding me of someone, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.

"Swimming?" I suggested. Seth shook his head.

"There isn't a community pool for miles," he said. "We have the Pacific to swim in on those rare days it actually gets warm.

"A movie?" I threw out, this my last hope.

"We can do that!" Jacob exclaimed, quite happily. I laughed.

"Good," I smiled. "I was starting to wish I had runaway to L.A," I thought aloud as me and the boys got up, starting to walk outside.

"Why didn't you?" Paul asked as we walked toward a truck.

"I hopped on the first plane out of state and it happened to be going to Port Angeles, Washington," I explained. When we arrived at the truck, I immediately smiled.  
>"Ooh!" I exclaimed. I ran to the truck and began examining it. "Oh man! I so want a truck like this," I gushed, rubbing my hands over the body of it. "Whose is it?" I asked, beaming at the boys. Jacob smiled and raised a timid finger.<p>

"Mine," he answered. I smiled even wider. I jumped into the bed of the truck getting a leg up on the tire. I walked forward and then leaned on the cab of the truck, smiling down at Jacob.

"I want one of these, only bright blue," I told him. I hopped out and stood by the truck. "And then, I'm gonna write a bunch of Marilyn Monroe quotes all over it and I wanna find a little kid to help me paint pictures on it," I kept explaining. I found it was quite easy to talk to Jacob.

"You have it all figured out, huh?" Embry asked, ruffling up my hair. I smiled and nodded. Jacob was about to get into the driver's seat when I saw something.

"It's stick shift?" I exclaimed, running over to the driver side. "Oof," I huffed as I tripped and hit the ground. But I scrambled up and stood next to Jake. He nodded.

"Yup. Only type I drive," he said.

"Impressive," I teased, nudging him in the shoulder and humoring him. "Can I drive?" I asked, smiling wide at him. He looked at me like I was crazy.

"Are you crazy?" Paul asked me from inside the car. "You did NOT just ask Jake if you could drive his truck."

"Yeah, nobody is ever allowed to drive Jacob's car," Seth said. "EVER!" Jacob was still looking at me skeptically.

"Pleease," I begged. He didn't say anything, but just narrowed his eyes at me. I sighed.

"Pleease," I begged softer, clasping my hands together and giving him the puppy dog eyes. He sighed and seemed to be softening a little bit, but not enough. I bit by bottom lip and put on my best puppy dog face. "Just this once?" I mouthed. He raised his eyebrows at me, on the verge of making a decision. "It would make me really happy…" I whispered. Now it was all a matter of winning the staring contest. Finally, he gave up. He rolled his eyes, threw his hands in the air and walked over to the passenger side.

"Yay!" I squeaked, doing a little happy dance.

"Get your cutesy butt in here and drive before I change my mind!" Jacob ordered, grinning. I smiled at him and slid in. He gave me the keys and I started the car.

"Off we go!" I shouted as we pulled out of the driveway.

* * *

><p>"What to see, what to see…" I murmured to myself as I tapped my chin and looked up at the list of movies at the theater. Just then, my eyes lit up as I saw a movie I knew I wanted to see. "Oh I know! How about we go see <em>Letters to Jul<em>—"

Paul cut me off by putting his mouth close to my ear and murmuring, "If you say _Letters to Juliet_, I may have to hurt you. And I think I may be coming to like you. Don't ruin it." He stepped back and stood behind me with the rest of the boys.

"Okay…" I said. I looked for another movie which I quickly found. "Oh! What about _Just Wright_?" I suggested.

"No," Seth said simply from behind me. I sighed agitatedly.

"Okay, what about _Sex and the_—" Jared immediately stopped me.

"Don't even go there," he growled menacingly. I huffed out.

"Well what do you guys wanna go see?" I challenged, spinning around to face them. "Something like, _The Crazies_?"

"Well if you insist!" Jared said, pretending as if I had suggested it. All the boys walked up to the ticket vendor and began to purchase their tickets for the horror movie.

"Ohhh…" I whined, turning around to watch as they bought their tickets.

"What's the matter?" said a voice from behind me. I turned around to stare Jacob in his warm brown eyes making my heart skip for reasons I didn't quite understand.

"I don't like scary movies," I admitted to him in hushed tones.  
>"Why not?" he asked, smirking at me.<p>

"Cause they're scary!" I shouted, waving my hands up in the air. "I thought that was obvious!" Jacob shook his head and laughed. I just pouted and crossed my arms at him.

"C'mon, let's go buy your ticket," Jacob said. He placed his hand on my middle back and turned me around, steering me to the ticket vendor.

"Jacob will you buy it for me?" I begged, stopping so that Jacob had to stop too. He looked at me questioningly, then laughed.

"Why?" he asked.

I looked at the lady in the window, scooted closer to him and whispered, "She looks like the bloody lady from the commercial for the movie we're gonna go see." He looked at her, then back at me.

"How?" he laughed in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine. I sucked my teeth and stomped away from him.

"I don't know, she just does!" I whined.

"Hey! When you guys are done whispering nothings to each other or whatever you're doing, meet us in the theater, huh?" Paul shouted from the snack bar. All of the boys then headed into the theater. Jacob sighed and looked up at the list of movies again.

"Tell ya what," he said. "The boys have all already gone into the movie theater. Probably won't even notice we're gone."

"And we'll be…where?" I questioned, stepping a bit closer.

"How 'bout we go see _Toy Story 3_?" he suggested with a shrug.

"Sweet!" I screeched. I grabbed his hand and dragged him to the vendor to buy our tickets. "Two tickets for _Toy Story 3_please," I requested.

"That'll be $16.70," she told me. I began to reach into my Invader Zim wallet to grab my money when Jacob slid it under the tiny half circle from behind me. He passed extremely close to me, his arm brushing mine when he handed her the money.

"I got this," he told me quietly, flashing me a smile. She gave us the tickets and the two of us walked to the snack bar.

"Wanna just get two small popcorns?" I asked him while we waited in line.

"I don't want a whole small," Jacob argued, looking down at the ground. He put his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his feet. I looked at him skeptically. "What?" he demanded.

"Have you seen yourself lately? You and the boys never STOP eating! 'I don't want a whole _small_?'" I teased, nudging him in the shoulder. He blushed and looked down again.

"I'm not that hungry," he admitted.

"Wanna just share a medium then?" I suggested. He shrugged.

"That could work," he agreed. He looked back at me and I smiled at him as we stepped up to buy our snacks. I couldn't help but think that it was the "share" part that got him more than anything. We bought the popcorn and two large boxes of Junior Mints. Then, we walked right past the theater playing the one o'clock showing of _The Crazies_ and walked into theater seven playing _Toy Story 3_.

_**Jacob's Point of View**_

Every time I looked down at Calypso, I wanted to rub my lips all over her milk chocolate skin. Real chocolate obviously wasn't enough for me anymore, considering I didn't even finish my Junior Mints. She had her head on my shoulder and was watching the movie intently, my arm around her shoulders. It seemed to almost burn and that was saying a lot considering the fact that that my body was usually overheated anyway. My heart was palpitating and I was pretty sure it wasn't because of the suspense of the movie.

We watched the movie onto the end where it became kind of sad. Almost a little scary…if you were six. I felt something wet drip onto my leg. I looked down at Calypso's face and saw a tear come from her eye, joining the rest that had slid down her face and onto my lap. "You okay?" I whispered in her ear. She quickly wiped her face and sat up, sniffing her nose.

"Yeah," she insisted, nodding.

"You know they'll be okay, right?" I asked her. She nodded.

"Yeah, I know," she lied. I grinned at her and put my arms around her shoulders so she had to lay her head back on my shoulder. Her tears spilled onto my lap once again, but I didn't mind, simply because they were her tears. I brushed all the hair away from her ear that was facing up.

I then leaned down and whispered, "It's a kids' movie. They've got to get out of it safely." I sat back up and saw her smile. She nodded and we both continued to watch the movie. By the end, she was crying again.

"Are you crying again?" I asked her softly. I couldn't help but smile. She sat up and frowned at me playfully.

"Yeah," she admitted as she wiped her tears. "But only 'cuz I'm happy." I nodded as I wiped a stray tear from her face. Both of us continued to watch the movie for the remaining five minutes, and then walked out of the theater.

"So what did you think of the movie?" I asked her as we filed out.

"I loved it," she said smiling, throwing away the empty popcorn bucket. "Much better than _The Crazies_, I'm sure."

"I'm glad," I said. And I meant it too. I felt like I had just climbed Mt. Everest, and all because I had made her happy. I tossed my basically full box Junior Mints into the trash, but right before it disappeared into the garbage, Calypso's hand had snatched it right out of the air. I wasn't able to help noticing a long scar that stretched across her palm.

"That would have been a waste of chocolate!" she exclaimed, popping a candy into her mouth. I laughed.

"Hey," I began. "I know this isn't any of my business, but...where did you get that scar from?" I asked. Calypso looked up at me, her face impassive. I saw her swallow.

"Um, my mom. Some shit went down a long time ago...no biggie." I could tell that this was indeed, a biggie.

"Calypso, what—"

"Let's just get to the boys," she insisted, interrupting me as we headed out the doors. She sped ahead to the guys, all leaning against my truck, glaring at us.

"Where in the hell were you?" Jared demanded.

"We went to go see _Toy Story 3_instead," I said, winking at them. Calypso pushed right past Seth and Embry, sliding into the passenger seat of the car.

_Yeah. Who'd wanna sit in a scary movie and have a girl clutching onto you the whole time? That's just _stupid_!_Embry thought sarcastically.

_Exactly. I'd much rather have to comfort her at all the sad parts and come off as sensitive all at the same time_, I retorted with a smug smile.

_Touché_, he gave in. I smirked at him. He just rolled his eyes and got into the backseat of the truck.

Once everybody had piled in, I slid into the driver's seat, next to Calypso. She was looking out the window as if she was upset about something.

_Is Calypso okay?_Seth asked.

_I think she's reminiscing about the times she had to stop her mother from killing her_, I told him bitterly, unable to keep the anger out of my thoughts from the idea of someone hurting Calypso.

_Are you serious?_Quil asked in shock. I turned on the car and began to drive us to Emily's house.

_As a fat man's heart attack_, I promised.

_Jeez. She said it was bad, but I wasn't sure if she was just being a drama queen or not_, Paul admitted.

_I remember Emily saying something about her mom being a nut_, Seth contributed.

_Well, I think we can safely say she's not simply a drama queen_, I said, ending the conversation. I looked over at Calypso and she looked away from the window and at me.

"Anybody else hungry?" she asked. She smiled at all of us, but I could tell there was something behind that smile. She was hiding something, and I was determined to find out what it was.


	5. Pinky Promises

"_All a girl really wants is for one guy to prove to her that they are not all the same." _

–_Marilyn Monroe_

My alarm rung loud in my ear. I squealed, rolling out of bed in surprise. I reached a hand up from the floor to hit the snooze button on my alarm, shutting it up. "Ohhh…" I groaned. It was the first day of school and I wasn't thrilled at all. All I had been doing the past few days with the boys was inflicting terror on the sleepy animals of the forest. Yesterday, we ran around in the woods banging pots and pans on our heads. Emily's niece Claire had gone with us. She was absolutely adorable. Everyone loved her. Especially Quil. And she seemed to be extremely attached to him too. It was kind of cute actually.

I took a shower and then stumbled sleepily back to my room. I picked out a form fitting tube dress with some kind of spandex cotton blend, which hugged every single one of my curves. It was pink and black striped and hit mid thigh. I paired it with black leggings and a short sleeved gray cardigan that came to my rib cage. I decided to wear my gray ankle boot wedges that laced up in the front, with sliver bangles up my right arm. My hair was in its normal style, long and wavy, and I only put on a bit of eyeliner and mascara. I walked downstairs, yawning and stretching all the way. "Woah," I said unenthusiastically. "Morning, Jake. Why aren't you headed to school?" I asked, reaching my arms out to hug him.

It seemed to have become an instinct, me reaching out my arms to hug Jacob whenever I saw him. That instinct actually applied to everyone I had met here in La Push, but Jacob especially. I didn't know why. It was as if I needed to hug him though. Like if I didn't, the day would be off balance. It wouldn't work out the way it should and everything would go wrong. Maybe the Earth would explode or my breathing would stop, I didn't know. It was a little strange. But he wrapped my arms around me and I was sure the day would go fine. I was one hundred percent positive about it.

Of course, it was just a friendly thing.

"I am about to be headed to school. And you're coming with me," Jake said, taking his arms from around me.

"What?" I asked. "I thought Emily was taking me to school." I glanced over at her.

"Well, I was, but Jacob insisted," Emily explained from her seat at the kitchen table, gripping her coffee mug.

"You don't mind, do you?" he asked me, frowning worriedly. I looked at him.

"No! No, of course not," I promised. I reached up and smoothed out the furrow between his eyebrows. "And don't frown. Your face is gonna get stuck like that. I'll miss your smile," I teased.

Jacob frowned as hard as he could then, and I started to use both hands to pry his eyebrows apart. We both began laughing at our antics, and eventually I gave up, hitting him on the shoulder once instead. He laughed and straightened up, his face returning to its normal happy state.

"C'mon, let's go."

"Oh. Okay," I said. Putting his hand on the small of my back, Jake began steering me to the door. "Wait!" I said. I jogged to Emily and gave her a big hug.

After I pulled away, I asked, "Where's Sam?"

"Upstairs, asleep," she said. I ran upstairs and knocked on Sam's door.

"Come in," he grunted. I slowly opened the door and stalked up to the side of his bed, his back towards me.

"Hey," I sing-songed, tapping on his bare shoulder. He looked sleepily over his shoulder and lazily smiled at me.

"Hey, girly girl," he said sitting up so his entire bare chest was showing.

"I'm not a girly girl," I protested, sitting on the side of the bed.

"Whaddya want?" he asked playfully.

"You didn't come downstairs to wish me luck on my first day," I whined. He smiled at me.

"I didn't know you wanted me to," he admitted.

"Well of course I wanted you to!" I said, surprising even myself. He smiled wider at me.

"Good luck at school today, sweetie," he wished as he hugged me.

"Thanks," I said. I hugged him for a little bit longer, not minding the fact that I felt like I was hugging a space heater. I finally let go and said, "I gotta get going."

"Good luck," he shouted after me as I closed the door behind me.  
>"You ready?" Jacob asked.<p>

"Ready as I'll ever be," I breathed, pulling on my black leather jacket. He smiled at me as he opened the door for me. We walked out into the cold, a light drizzle occurring, and Jake walked me to his car. He opened my door for me, as he always did, and I slid into my seat. He walked around to his side and got in. He turned on the car and blasted the heat, just for me, as usual. We backed out of the driveway and began driving to school.

"You nervous?" Jake asked me over the music. I turned it down a little so we could hear each other clearly.

"Yeah, a little. I mean, going to an all-new school across the country. That's a tad terrifying, don't ya think?" I asked sarcastically. He laughed.

"I guess I see how that can be a little bit frightening," he said. I smiled and looked down at my fingers. "Hey," he murmured softly, making me look up at him. "You know I've got your back today, right?" he asked. I shrugged. "Well I do," he promised. "One hundred percent. I'm yours today."

I looked up at him. "Promise?" I asked timidly. He took his eyes from the road to smile at me so warmly that I didn't need the heat any more.

"Promise," he repeated.

"Pinky promise?" I checked, sticking out my pinky finger. He glanced down at it, smiled, then hooked his tightly around it.

"Pinky promise," he swore.

"Seal it with a kiss?" I added. He looked at me questioningly. I sighed. "Look, kiss your thumb like this," I ordered, kissing my thumb as an example. He followed suit. "Now press your thumb to mine." We both arched our thumbs over our interlocked pinkies and pressed them together firmly. I took my hand from his, putting it back in my lap as he put it back on the wheel.

"There! Now you've sealed it with a kiss," I congratulated him. He laughed.

"Do I get a prize?" he asked.

"The satisfaction of knowing that your thumb has just made out with mine," I told him. He laughed again.

"That's good enough for me," he said. He looked over at me with a smile, and I couldn't help but think he was flirting. I smiled back.

Five minutes later, we arrived at La Push Reservation High School. Jacob parked in a spot marked "Jake's Spot" in sloppy white spray-paint. I figured that he was popular enough to get away with the blatant vandalizing of school property. The parking lot was crowded with teenagers, reuniting with old friends and flirting with new ones. Jacob got out of the car as I watched all the kids mingling. Jacob opened my door for me and I snapped out of my trance to look at his smiling face.

"You ready, hun?" he asked me.

"Hun?" I repeated, questioning the affectionate little nickname. He shrugged.

"It's a friendly 'hun'," he reassured me.

"Ah," I said. I smiled at him, which seemed to make him stand a little bit straighter. "Yeah. I guess," I shrugged. Jake raised his eyebrows at me.

"You guess?" he repeated, astonished.

"Yeah, I guess," I told him again.

"You GUESS?" he growled playfully. He reached into the car and began viciously tickling me.

"EEK!" I screeched, drawing almost everybody's attention to the car. "Jacob, leggo!" I squealed through my giggles. I ended up "giggle spasming" out of the car, but Jacob caught me and held me close.

"Now are you ready?" he asked me, smiling.

"Of course," I whispered.

"Why hello there, lovers," Quil greeted, walking towards us with the rest of the boys. I just rolled my eyes and went over to hug Quil and the rest of the boys. The last boy I hugged was Embry, so he put his arm around my waist and walked with me to the school, all the boys right behind us.

"Well look at that. You're already getting 'come-hither' looks from all the boys," Embry pointed out, glancing back at Jacob. I snuck a peek at him for his reaction to Embry's little comment. He rolled his eyes and frowned at the ground beside him. I glanced around at all the people staring at us…and realized they weren't staring at us. They were staring at me. Some of them, not so nicely.

"Looks like some people are planning out death threats too…" I murmured under my breath. I noticed that most of them were girls. Paul put his hands on my shoulders from behind.

"Awww. It's only 'cuz your so preeeetty," he whispered in my ear. I smiled, but it immediately disappeared from my face when I saw the way one girl was glaring at me.

"Who's that?" I inquired, as I watched the girl flip her long blond hair over her shoulder.

Seth came up and put his arm around my shoulders on the other side of me, making Paul step back.

"That's Jennifer Keelan. She's had a crush on Jakey here since freshman year," he informed me. I couldn't take my eyes off her and she seemed to refuse to take her eyes off of me.

"She's beautiful," I murmured before I knew what I was saying. And it definitely wasn't a lie. Her toned, never ending legs were shown off via her white short-shorts, as were her stunning arms and chest by her low-cut tank top. She had platinum blond hair; shiny and full enough to make an Herbal Essence model jealous. She had full, red lips and her brilliant blue eyes were framed by long, dark lashes and thick, dark eyebrows that seemed to maintain a certain shape, while still giving her a rebellious look. She could have been a model. "She's intimidating," I added after I had admired her beauty.

"She's annoying," Jacob said, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my shoulder, making both Seth and Embry back away so he could hold me.

"Jakey!" trilled a voice from behind the two of us. I looked around so that Jacob's hair was brushing my cheek. I faltered a little when I saw Jennifer shooting Jacob such a seductive look, but he seemed to sense my slight insecurity. He squeezed me around the middle and brushed his lips against my cheek, as if he were about to kiss me, but decided against it last minute. "Jake. You're not forgetting about our customary hug, are you?" she giggled, almost desperately. He sighed and I seemed to clutch at his hands when he started to take them away from my waist, but I figured it was another instinct.

However, he pulled his hands from my grip and my heart seemed to kick me in the chest. My hands felt strangely empty once he had taken his from them. It was like his hands belonged in mine, but they weren't there. They were rubbing Jennifer Keelan's back as Jacob embraced her.

"She's obviously not that annoying," I murmured to the boys, smirking and making them all laugh.

"Bitter much?" Embry asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.  
>"No, not bitter exactly," I promised. "More…isolated," I admitted.<p>

"Isolated?" Quil asked.

"Yeah. This morning in the car, Jacob promised me he'd be there for me today and he completely ditched me for…the leggy blond," I explained. I didn't really want to call her by her name, because then I'd have to think of her as a person with feelings. Right now, I just wanted to be angry with her for luring Jacob away from me when he was supposed to be mine for the day.

"Aww. It's okay," Jared promised, throwing his arm around my shoulders once again. "How 'bout I take you to go get your schedule?" he offered. I nodded, so the two of us said goodbye to the boys and headed to the office. "Hey Mrs. Urqhart," Jared greeted the secretary with a friendly wave.

"Good morning Jared!" Mrs. Urqhart waved back. "How's your first day going?" she asked as she shuffled some papers, then shoved them in a filing drawer, picking out another pile.

"Great," he answered happily.

"Good," she said. "Now I'm assuming you're our new student? Calypso Kinnear?" she asked, now addressing me as she walked across the office to another filing cabinet.

"Yes," I confirmed as she took out a file and walked with it back to her desk. She smiled at me.

"You're just as pretty as they say. Prettier in fact," she told me. I was a bit taken aback by this comment.

"How did you know my name?" I questioned as she sat down in front of us. She laughed.

"Honey, besides out freshman class, we get about two new students every year. It'd be harder for me not to remember your name," she explained with a smile. "Here's your schedule," she said, handing a white sheet of paper to me with my list of classes on it.

"Thank you," I said, beaming at her as Jared steered me out of the office.

"Bye, Mrs. Urqhart," he said with a wave as we headed to the door.

"Bye, honey," she said. "Good luck, sweetheart!" she shouted after me as Jared and I walked out. I looked through my classes as Jared walked through the halls with me.

"Wow. Every class, you have at least one of us with you. Lucky girl," he said to me with a wink. I smiled.

"Hey, you two," Embry said as we caught up with him and Quil.

"Let's see your schedule," Quil demanded, reaching across Embry to take the paper from my hands as we walked to the gym. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "You have first period with me and Embry!" I smiled.

"Sweetness!" I squealed, hugging Embry who was the nearest of the two.

"So I assume she's in safe hands with you guys?" Jared asked distractedly, spotting Kim at her locker up ahead. I had met Kim this last week when hanging out with the guys in Port Angeles.

"You'd better hope so if you wanna go see your woman," Embry joked, throwing his arm around me, me putting my arm around his waist.

"See you guys later," he said, smiling at us. He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek, said, "Good luck," and then jogged off to go see Kim.

"Alrighty then," Quil said. "P.E, here we come." We all then headed over to the gym.

* * *

><p>After fourth period, it was time for lunch and Paul walked with me to the lunchroom. "Do you think I'll come to like Ms. Hadsworth?" I asked him, clutching my books to my chest as we walked down the hall. He looked at me, and then shook his head.<p>

"No," he said. "There's a reason she's a Miss and not a Mrs." I laughed. On the way to the cafeteria, he gave me the rundown on all the teachers at La Push High School.

"You don't seem to like a lot of the teachers here, do you?" I asked him as we entered the lunchroom.

"They don't like me," he argued bitterly while we got in line for our food.

"I'm nicer than you though," I debated. The boy in front of me looked back and smiled.

"You seem to be nicer than a lot of the people here," he said. He then slowly looked me up and down and said, "A lot prettier too." I smirked and bit my lip, averting my eyes to my gray looking mac and cheese. He reached out a hand for me to shake. "I'm Max," he introduced. I put my hand in his and shook it.

"I'm Calypso," I greeted. "Nice to meet you." He brought my hand up to his lips and gently kissed it.

"The pleasure is all mine," he flirted. I tried to keep from collapsing into a giggling fit as I took my hand from his grasp. I moved it to the spoon in front of me to scoop some broccoli onto my plate when Seth stepped right between Max and me.

"'Scuse me!" he squeaked as he took the spoon from me and put broccoli onto his plate. Max glared at him, but it seemed like he couldn't do anything. I assumed that the whole group of overgrown boys that I spent a majority of my time with were popular enough to get away with anything.

"You can't cut in line!" I hissed at him, pushing a lock of my hair behind my ear.

"Jacob made me!" he hissed back.

"He was too busy with Jennifer to come himself, huh?" I snapped, spooning mashed potatoes onto my plate with more force than necessary. Paul just smirked.

"And he's mad at you, mister," Seth added, pointing at Paul over me. Paul immediately looked affronted.

"What! Why me?" he demanded, grabbing three cookies and putting them on his plate.

"Pig," I muttered under my breath, just loud enough so he could hear. He looked down at me and winked, making me smile as I grabbed a milk carton.

"Because you let Calypso go around flirting with anyone and everyone is what he said," Seth explained, not noticing me and Paul's small exchange.

"Well if he wants to go off gallivanting with models, that's his problem, isn't it?" I retorted as we all walked to the table. Paul and Seth exchanged a look over my head that obviously said, "Someone's upset." I simply ignored it as we sat down, Paul and Seth on either side of

me.

"Hey, Calypso! How's your first day going so far?" Jacob asked over enthusiastically.

"Hm. Got bored enough with Jennifer to care, huh?" I snipped, stabbing at my mac and cheese with more force than necessary. He sighed and reached across the table to hold my hand.

"Oh, c'mon. I care!" he insisted.

"Well you didn't this morning," I pouted, taking my hand from his. "You couldn't even bother to take me to get my schedule," I complained, now pushing my broccoli around on my plate with my fork, my head in my hand.

"Yeah. I had to do that," Jared said, pretending to be sympathetic so as to make Jacob feel bad. Jake just glared at him.

"Or take me to my very first class," I continued, sitting up now to frown at him and setting my fork down.

"Embry and I did that," Quil taunted, making Jacob's glare turn on him.

"You were too busy with Jennifer," I said now smirking. I knew I was getting to him and for once, the boys' need to annoy each other had finally paid off. They were helping my case.

"Calypso—" he begged, but I cut him off.

"Couldn't even worry about lil' ol' me," I teased.

"I just wanted to—"

"You shouldn't have promised to stay with me in the car if you didn't mean it."

"Calypso, I did mean it."

"Until you saw Jennifer's never ending legs. Then our thumb make-out session meant nothing."

"Calypso—"

"You pinky promised, Jake," I whispered dramatically and convincingly, now leaning forward to look him in the eye.

"Wait, you pinky promised?" Paul asked, leaning forward to face Jake. I threw my hands up in the air and sat back in my chair, watching Jake suffer.

"Pinky promises are serious business, Jake," Embry taunted, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms to stare at Jake.

"It's practically illegal to break them," Jared gasped.

"I rest my case," I said, standing up and putting my hands on the table. "Now I'm going to the library." Without getting my tray, I got up and walked to the door, making sure to switch my hips so that Jacob had something to miss. On my way to the door, a guy from one table wolf whistled. I turned around so I was now facing Jacob when I got to the door and hip checked it open, smirking at him, one eyebrow raised. I then walked out of the lunchroom and down the hall, soon joined by yet another attractive boy. The doors closed right after the boy had joined me, so I was positive that Jacob saw it.

_**Jacob's Point of View**_

I stared at the closed doors and sighed, laying my head on the table in my arms. I could hear one of the boys click his tongue in disapproval. I peeked over one of my arms to see Seth looking down at me, shaking his head. "Jacob, Jacob, Jacob…" he murmured.

"What?" I demanded.

"Breaking pinky promises?" Paul said.

"I thought we had raised you better than that," Jared joked, laying a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off and rolled my eyes.

"I didn't mean to hurt her feelings," I said, my heart sinking. She seemed to be really upset with the fact that I left her to go say hi to the ever-demanding Jennifer.

"Oh Jake, she was just kidding," Embry said, waving a hand.

"I know, but I think she really was hurt. Just a little bit," I explained.

"Well maybe next time, you should think twice before ditching your soulmate to run after some life-sized Barbie doll," Paul said, poking at his slime called "Mac and Cheese".

"I wasn't chasing after her. She wasn't gonna leave me alone until I said hi! You guys know how she is," I argued as we all got up to throw our trays away.

"Yeah, well I think you'd know better considering the fact that you dated her for a month," Quil added as we walked out of the doors. I shuddered when I thought about that horrible month that I dated Jennifer.

"God, that was torture," I said. "Jakey, I need flowers! These are pink roses! I'm wearing white, I need white roses! OPE! Too late, I've had my outfit change already! I need pink roses again! GOD, JAKE! These are pale pink! I need hot pink roses. MY LAST BOYFRIEND DID EVERYTHING RIGHT, WHY CAN'T YOU!" I mocked her in a high-pitched voice, making all the boys laugh. "Oh, and by the way, I love you, honey," I said, adding on one more thing as Jennifer in a falsely sweet voice.

"Well, whether it was torture or not, you still went through with it which means…" Paul started. "DRUM ROLL PLEASE!" he requested, turning on the spot and pointing to Seth. Seth banged repeatedly on the nearest locker, mocking the sound of a drum as Paul turned back to me. "You still have to tell Calypso!" he shouted happily, making Seth stop and begin walking with us again.

"Oh, that's right, Jakey!" Jared teased, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pinching my cheek harder than necessary. "When do you plan to break the poor girl's heart—I mean tell her!" I sighed, stopped so that Jared had to stop too, and punched him in the lower gut with all my might. He let out a huff and doubled over, holding his stomach. The rest of us walked on, leaving him to suffer.

"I dunno. I mean, I'll figure out a time," I said shrugging.

"Well you'd better tell her before Jennifer does, because you know she will as soon as she gets the chance," Quil warned as Jared ran to catch up with us.  
>"Yeah, and you'd better take care of Calypso," Embry cautioned seriously. "I've never seen Jennifer look like that before. I think she means business." I nodded.<p>

"Yeah, I know," I agreed. "I couldn't get that off my mind either." Paul let out a low whistle.

"It's gonna be an interesting school year," he said.

"All we can do is pray for a catfight!" Embry whispered, putting his palms together and looking up at the sky. Everyone laughed and exchanged high-fives as we walked into the library. When I got in there, I saw Calypso sitting next to Oliver Matthews, star quarterback, and he was definitely on his game today. She seemed to be really into him and I felt ready to go over there and pummel him to a bloody pulp. I started walking over there, feeling the familiar sense of rage begin to boil through me when I felt a hand on my shoulder, stopping me.

"Don't," Seth said simply. "There's no point." I turned around to face him.

"What do you mean 'There's no point'? I wanna beat out the competition," I explained.

"You wanna beat UP the competition, and it would be pointless," he said.

"How?" I demanded, starting to get agitated with him.

"Because there IS no competition," he huffed, as if his point were obvious. "You've imprinted on her meaning she's got to fall in love with you! It's just how it goes. Let her have her fun until she realizes you're her one and only, and then you guys will live happily ever after! The end," he explained. I smiled.

"You know, for being younger than me, you sure are smart," I admitted, patting him on the shoulder. Keeping my hand on him, I looked around at Calypso and Oliver. "I really wanna go over there and rip his intestines out through his ass though…" I wished aloud. Seth stepped behind me and shoved me forward.

"Yeah, well go read a book or something," he ordered, kicking at my butt. I grinned, and went to go grab a book off the shelves.  
>"Only 'cuz you're so smart," I teased as I walked over to the shelves, him coming with me.<p>

"Yeah, why don't you go shove it up your—"

"Watch your mouth," I sing-songed, cracking open a book and glancing up at him with a smirk. He shook his head and grabbed a book himself. We tried to sit down and read them, but after thirty seconds, he looked up at me. "What?" I asked.

"Instead of reading these, why don't we do something useful with them?" Seth said, smirking evilly.

"Like?" I asked, laughing.

"Like beating Quil and Embry over the head with them," he suggested, standing up.

"I like your thinking," I said, standing up as well. We then headed off to look for Quil and Embry.


	6. Purple Eyes and Motorcycles

"_Ever notice that 'what the hell' is always the right decision?" _

–_Marilyn Monroe_

I walked into the last period of the day.

Math.

I sighed when I saw the teacher writing notes about the syllabus on the board. What teacher would want us to take notes on the syllabus? _That's just dumb_, I thought to myself as I walked all the way into the room, carrying my books. I scanned the room for a seat when I saw Jacob frantically waving his hands in the back, an empty seat next to him. I had been avoiding him in all my classes and was still a little upset with him for ditching me this morning. I knew I joked about it at lunch, but only because the guys would have teased me if I said how I really felt.

I sighed, rolled my eyes and started toward the seat when I saw a blond streak fly by me and before I knew it, Jennifer was sitting in my seat, flirting with Jacob. She was touching his leg and his hair and his muscles…my train of thought trailed off right about there.

_Wow. I've never really noticed his muscles before_, I thought to myself. _I mean he's been topless in Emily's kitchen plenty of times, but…I've just never really noticed…_The room suddenly became kind of hot which was surprising considering this was Forks, Washington.

I tore my eyes from Jacob's adorable biceps and scanned the room for a seat. I saw a cute kid with glasses sitting by the window. I walked over to his table and I was surprised by how attractive he was. He had long black hair and sun-kissed skin—how it came to be sun-kissed was beyond me—and he was wearing a short-sleeved, gray "Green Day" t-shirt, which showed off his impressive biceps and pecs. They were just the size I liked: there and noticeable, but not in your face.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" I asked timidly. He pried his eyes off of his book to look at me, and my breath caught in my throat when I saw his eyes. They were a stunning purple. I had never met anyone with purple eyes before.

"Hi. I'm Kyle," he said, holding out a hand for me to shake as I sat in the seat next to him.

"I'm Calypso," I breathed, staring right into his eyes.

"The whole school is buzzing about you," he said, taking his hand from mine to close his book and put it aside. I smiled and looked down at the table.

"Oh yeah? And why would that be?" I asked, making circles on the desk with the tip of my finger.

"Maybe it's 'cause you're so charming," he said. I looked up at him and was caught off-guard again by his eyes.

"Charming, huh?" I asked. He smiled at me and I felt my heart lift a little. "You've hardly been talking to me a minute and I'm already charming?" He shrugged and grinned. "I could be a crazy serial killer. You don't know," I teased.

"You'd probably just charm your way out of prison," he joked. I glanced down at the table and laughed. He was the first guy all day that actually had a sense of humor.

Looking him back in the eyes, I took a deep breath and asked, "Has anyone ever told you that you have amazing eyes?" He grinned in a sexy sort of way that made my heart pound.

"A few people, yeah," he admitted, leaning forward so that his face was closer to mine. "Has anyone ever told you that you're beautiful?" he asked, narrowing his eyes slightly so that they seemed to become intensified.

"No, actually," I breathed looking into his eyes. He grinned at me.

"Oh," he said. He slowly leaned closer to my face until his nose was only three inches from mine. "Well, you're beautiful," he murmured.

"Thanks," I said softly, smiling. Right then, all I wanted to do was kiss him.

"I hope you all like your new seats, because these will be your seats for the rest of the semester," announced Mr. Burns from the front the class. "Now, if you would turn your attention to the front, we can get started." Kyle stared into my eyes for a few more seconds, before we both leaned away from each other. He crossed his arms and looked at the front of the room, grinning and I leaned forward in my chair with my elbows on the table. I couldn't help myself from sneaking another peek at Kyle, so I glanced over at him.

He apparently had the same feeling, because he was already staring at me when I had looked over at him. He winked at me and I just looked at him, smiling. I took a deep breath, returned my attention back to the front of the class and, judging from my peripheral vision, he did too.

Throughout the class period, we kept sneaking glances at each other and making silly faces. It was really fun actually, probably the most fun I had had all day. The bell finally rang, so I grabbed my books and stood up. "Mr. Burns is a real charmer, huh?" he said, standing up and walking out with me.

"Totally! He's like, the coolest teacher ever," I replied sarcastically. He laughed.

"FINALLY! A girl who gets sarcasm here," he exclaimed. I smiled. He reached over and gently took my books from my hands.

"Here, lemme get those for you," he offered.

"Thanks," I said, pushing a piece of hair behind my ear.

"So I haven't seen you around here before—trust me, I would know," he started. "Where are you from?"

"Brooklyn," I answered as I walked to my locker and I began opening it.

"Brooklyn, _New York_?" he asked, specifying. I nodded and glanced at him as I opened my locker. He let out a low whistle.

"That's a long way from home, girly," he said as I took my books from him and loaded them into my backpack. "What brings you out here? Family on business?" I stood up and walked with him to his locker, throwing my big, chunky black bag into the crook of my elbow.

"More like what pushes me so far from the place where my relatives live—I don't call it home," I explained. "And no. Not on family business," I informed him. He frowned at me as he opened his locker.

"What do you mean?" he asked. I sighed and leaned up against the locker next to his, looking hard at his profile, trying to decide whether or not to tell him why I was so far away from "home".

"I ran away from the place where I lived," I explained simply as he closed his locker.

"Oh," he said. "Is everything okay over there?" he asked as we headed out the doors. I looked at him as if he was a little slow.

"Well, I did runaway…" I reminded him. He laughed.

"Right. Sorry," he apologized as we turned a corner. He patted the handles of a black Harley-Davidson. "So whaddya think?" he asked smiling. My eyes widened as I saw the motorcycle shining in the limited sun.

"This is yours?" I breathed, stroking the motorcycle. He nodded and sat down on it.

"I assume you have a ride home?" he asked, pulling on his helmet. I sighed and looked toward the parking lot at Jacob's truck. He still wasn't there yet.

"You would assume correctly," I informed him, faint notes of disappointment audible in my voice. He nodded again.

"Is there any way you could get out of it and let me take you out?" he asked hopefully, looking at me with bright eyes. I scrutinized him for a few moments, but I was finally broken down due to his stunningly purple eyes.

"What the hell," I responded, deciding on a whim to throw my concerns out the window and take his offer. I then saw Jared walking by, holding Kim's hand and walking to his car..

"Jared!" I shouted. He turned around, holding Kim's hand, watching as I jogged over to them.

"Yeah?" he breathed. He obviously wanted to get to his car so that he and Kim could begin making out. I laughed.

"This won't take long. Then you two can go kiss each other or whatever," I promised. Kim blushed and grinned at the ground. "Could you tell Jacob that I'm getting a ride home?" I requested. He frowned and looked around at the school doors.

"Why don't you tell him yourself?" he asked me. I looked over at the doors and saw Jacob smiling and walking out of the school with all the other boys.

I struggled with a sufficient response. "'Cause, ah…um, you—you got this? You got this! You got this? Yeah, you—you got…this. Yup." He and Kim stared at me with confused, but amused expressions on their faces.

Deciding that this conversation was over, I abruptly ran back to Kyle and took the helmet from his outstretched hand. Shoving it onto my head, I hopped onto the back of his bike and threw my arms around his waist. "Go, go, GO!" I squealed into his ear. He laughed and started the motorcycle.

"Off we go!" he shouted as we zoomed out of the parking lot. There was a line of cars waiting to get out of the school parking lot. We flew by Jacob's truck out onto the street and towards Port Angeles.

* * *

><p>When Kyle saw Emily and Sam's house, he began to drive extremely slowly. I took off my helmet and shook out my long, wavy black hair. "What are you doing?" I giggled as he drove at about three miles per hour.<p>

"I'm driving very slowly," he said, turning around on the bike to look at me.

"I can see that," I laughed. "May I ask why?"

"Because I really don't want this date to end," he explained sweetly. He smiled at me softly and looked back around to the road. I felt my heart skip a couple beats as I replayed what he just said in my head.

"Was this a date?" I asked him simply, not able to say much more.

"If you want it to have been, then definitely," he started. "But if you're uncomfortable with that…" I thought about it. I wasn't sure how I felt.

"How 'bout it was just two new friends going out and getting to know each other," I negotiated.

"Cool," he said plainly. I smiled at how easy that was, and so I wrapped my arms around his waist and lay my head on his back. Even though it was cold outside, I could feel his warmth through the soft leather of his jacket. I closed my eyes and waited for the horrible moment when I heard gravel crunching underneath the wheels, meaning we had arrived in the dreaded driveway.

That sound had come all too soon.

"We can go out again. I'm still kinda hungry," I mumbled into him as he parked without opening my eyes. I heard him laugh his magnificent laugh—which I had grown accustomed to in the last few hours and could probably pick out from a crowd by now—and felt his body shift. I looked up without moving my head, and before I knew it, I was staring right into his brilliantly violet eyes.

"The guys can see us," he chuckled. I could feel the vibrations of his mirth caressing my cheek. It made me feel safe. "And besides, it's almost eight," he added. I just stared at him, losing myself in his eyes, and eventually, the humor faded from his face as he watched mine. He reached a hand over and stroked my cheek gently with his soft knuckles. I sighed and closed my eyes as I felt his hand glide over my face. "You should get inside," he murmured. I opened my eyes again and found myself staring right into his.

_I could get used to this…_

I grinned at him, and he returned the favor.

I got up off the bike and handed his helmet back to him, looking at the ground as he gazed at my face. 'C'mon, look at him ya big DUMMY!' I convinced myself. I finally looked up at him and nearly swayed a bit due to the sudden collision of our eyes. "I had a great time tonight," he breathed. "So…thanks." I grinned.

"Thank you," I said back as I bit my bottom lip. "I had a lot of fun." And I really wasn't lying. I looked back down at the ground, running my fingers through my hair.

"I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked, bending over a bit to look me in the face. I nodded and smiled, straightening up. "Great," he said. "Sweet dreams," he wished, right before he put on his bicycle helmet.

"You too," I said. I immediately regretted it once it came out of my mouth. _You too?_ my conscience shrieked. I just smiled at him and hurried inside, mentally kicking myself the whole way there.

_Really? That was the best you could come up with? I know you haven't had much experience, but C'MON! Even Claire would have done better than that hun_, I scolded myself. Huffing, I ran into the kitchen, closed the door behind me and leaned against it, closing my eyes and tilting my head back.

"How'd it go?" I heard Sam's deep voice ask. I opened my eyes, and all the guys plus Emily were in the kitchen just staring at me.

"YOU TOO!" I shrieked out loud, flailing my hands in the air and standing up of the door. "I ruined the whole night with two words that can be spelled out in a text containing three characters." I began to tick the characters off on my fingers as I said them aloud. "U. Space. 2. With those three characters I BLEW IT!" I squealed, rushing past the table of guys.

"The date was FINE until you just had to go run your big mouth, Calypso! I should have kept it shut! I should have nodded and smiled! That's every guy's DREAM DATE!" I shouted as I headed up the stairs and stormed off to my room, shutting the door after my last word. I flopped onto the bed as pathetic and miserable as a drama queen who know she's a drama queen and is kinda sad about it, but can't seem to care enough not to be one.

In shorter words: me.

I heard my door squeak open and a feminine voice say, "Calypso?" I peeled my eyes off the ceiling to see Emily's beautiful scarred face peeking through the wooden door.

"May I come in?" she requested. I nodded and sat up.

_**Jacob's Point of View**_

We all listened for the closing of Calypso's door meaning Emily had disappeared in there with her. Then all the boys looked at me. "What?" I demanded, near growling. Was it possible to be so angry you could punch a hole in the wall, but still feel heartbroken enough to cuddle up to a vampire if offered?

On the one hand, I was ready to chase after Kyle's piece-o'-shit bike and tear him and it to pieces, give the blood to the Cullen's, let the animals of the forest eat the flesh, and then use the scattered motorcycle parts to rebuild another motorcycle meant just for driving Kyle's bare bones off a cliff.

But on the other hand, I was devastated. The love of my life, my one and only, my reason for living, the bane of my existence, ditched me after school for some four-eyed, wannabe bad ass with purple contacts and an old motorcycle.

"Aw, cool your jets," Paul said aloud, trying to mold his abnormally large Rice Krispy Treat into a person of some sort. "You ditched her this morning for Barbie's Spawn. She ditched you this afternoon for Future James Bond. It's completely fair." I sighed inwardly. I had forgotten that all these bastards could hear my thoughts. I felt my heart squeeze a bit. Was that supposed to happen when you were guilty?

"It happens to me when I forget to get Claire blue flowers instead of red since she recently changed favorite colors," Quil admitted out loud.

"And when I eat eggs in front of Kim, forgetting that she's trying to be vegan for a month," Jared added.  
>"And to me too when I—" I cut Sam off.<p>

"Alright, I get it. It's just a freaky imprinting side effect," I snapped. And I felt really guilty for leaving Calypso for Jennifer this morning. Now that I thought about it, that may have been the biggest mistake in my life. I hopped from my chair, realization hitting me.

"Shit, you guys! Don't you see?" I started. All the boys stared up at me, including Paul who stopped working on his strange amalgamation of a human and a blob thingy. "By me leaving Calypso this morning for Jennifer, I pushed her into the open and welcoming arms of Kyle Wakefield who will then make her fall madly in love with him, they'll get married, have children and I really will be alone!" I explained. Silence.

These guys had given me some weird looks in the past, but these definitely took the cake. I had to stop myself from patting my head to make sure that Paul's weird dessert sculpture hadn't jumped on my head and started braiding my hair.

"Dude," Embry breathed, squinting his eyes at me as if he were looking for an explanation for my erratic behavior in fine print on my face. "Are you PMSing?" Everybody laughed but me.

"It's because he has purple eyes," Seth said simply.

"No, Seth, you don't understand—" He ran right over me.

"No," he said firmly while still laughing. "It's his eyes. Trust me. All the girls in my year are always gushing about Kyle Wakefield and how guys with purple eyes are sexy and mysterious and rare. The senior girls of course have the sense not to say that crap out loud in public. But I promise you, that that is what caught Calypso's attention. Not you going for a make-out session with America's Next Top M.I.L.F." Everyone laughed again, not including me.

Didn't they understand that my life—my future—was crashing around my ears as fast as Kyle could ride off with Calypso into the gleaming sunset? Sam, laughing and shaking his head, pushed me down into my seat by my shoulders and sat next to me. "Jacob, Calypso just has a little crush. It'll pass, I promise," he said, keeping a hand on my shoulder and looking me in the eye. His gaze became serious now. "But in the meantime, you have to keep your head. No random outbursts about how much you love her or hate Kenny—"

"No, Sam. Kyle. If he was Kenny, I would have killed him by now. Because no one would miss him. Not even his friends," I joked. This time, everyone but Sam laughed. He obviously didn't get it.

"You killed Kenny!" Embry said in a high-pitched voice, mocking Kyle from South Park.

"You bastard!" Quil finished, mocking Stan. We all laughed again. Sam just smiled and shook his head.

"You okay kid?" he asked me, patting me on the shoulder. I nodded.

"Yeah, I guess," I reluctantly agreed.

Sam took his hand off of my shoulder. "Now you kids need to GO HOME!" he ordered, pointing to the door. We all got up, our chairs scraping the floor and we filed out as we did every night, to our cars. I hopped inside my truck, but realized that it smelled…intoxicating. I breathed in and realized that the smell was just that of Calypso's shampoo. It smelled like lavender. I sat and thought about the times when I swore up and down I would only like the smell of strawberry shampoo and only on Bella…

But lavender was so much more…everything. It could be seductive or innocent. Daring or calm. Hopelessly feminine or powerfully feminist. Lavender had so many different uses; I couldn't even name them all, while a strawberry is just that. A strawberry.

It kind of made me sad to think that I had almost passed up labyrinthine lavender for simple strawberries.


	7. Black Skirts and White Shirts

"_I'm very definitely a woman and I enjoy it."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

I spent more time than usual getting ready this morning on account of Kyle. I threw on simple makeup, consisting of eyeliner, really good mascara and little bit of dark eyeshasow to accentuate my eyes. I wore a fitted, short-sleeved white t-shirt with a fairly low scoop neck. I made sure to wear a white Victoria's Secret push-up bra to help my little friends out. I had tucked the shirt under a high waisted black pencil skirt and I borrowed a pair of Emily's black pumps. I also curled the ends of my hair with a hot curler to give it a feathered look.

Spritzing on Marilyn Monroe's favorite perfume—Chanel No.5—and mine, I began walking down the stairs, but realized, the shoes were hurting my feet. I didn't usually wear high heels.

"Emily, no offense to your shoe taste, because these are unbelievably adorable, but they hurt like hell," I informed her as I walked into the kitchen, looking at my feet. I heard someone spit their coffee back into their mug and looked up at Sam. Sam was frowning at me slightly.

"Emily, is she allowed to wear that?" Sam asked, scanning me up and down. Emily looked at my outfit again and then back at Sam as if he was a little slow.

"Yeah. I helped her pick it out last night. What's wrong with it?" she asked him. He sighed and looked at me again, frowning.

"Well her skirt, it's—" He stopped mid-sentence, closing his mouth once again. My skirt came down to graze the tops of my knees; it simply clung to my hips quite well and tightened at the waist, making my middle look tiny, and therefore my bust and hips appear bigger.

His eyes lit up as he looked at the neckline of my shirt, but then he realized it wasn't inappropriately low. He opened his mouth to say something about my makeup, but realized I was hardly wearing any. Looking at my feet, he finally found what was wrong.

"Those heels are too high," he declared, quite proudly I might add. I smirked.

"Oh, I was just about to go change into some black flats," I informed him, smirking as I watched his bubble burst. He grunted, nodded, and returned to doing his crossword puzzle.

One thing I loved about Sam was how much he loved crossword puzzles. He would work on one for the whole day, never finishing it because he was so bad at them. Then, he would just recycle it and start on the next morning's crossword puzzle. He got a crease in the middle of his eyebrows when he was concentrating hard on a question and always refused everyone's help but Emily's and mine.

After I came back downstairs from switching out of the death heels for some comfy flats, Sam already had a question. "Finish the lyric: 'Blank, blank, here I go again,'" he quoted, not looking up from the paper. "The first word is five letters, the second is three.

"Mamma Mia," Emily and I answered at the same time. He sighed.

"I get it, I'm bad! Can you please just give me the answer?" he demanded. Emily and I exchanged a loving look and shook our heads.

Walking behind Sam, I put my arms around his neck and leaned forward so I had my chin on his shoulder. "That's the answer Sam. 'Mamma Mia, here I go again'," I sang in his ear. He raised his eyebrows and nodded.

"Ohhh, I seeee," he understood, scribbling the answer in the corresponding boxes. I laughed and kissed him on the cheek just as Jake walked in. I straightened up and he stopped in the doorway as he saw me, swaying a bit. A dreamy look occupied his face for a few moments and I didn't think he was breathing. I found it quite amusing actually. His face then became angry and worried. It kind of reminded me of Sam's face earlier this morning.

He pointed his finger up the stairs and shouted, "Go upstairs and change!" I laughed, but then realized he was not kidding.

"Jake, let's just go to school," I said, grabbing my cropped, long-sleeve black leather jacket.

"Sam, are you gonna let her walk out the house like that?" he whined, gesturing to me from the doorway as I walked to his truck.

"It all checks out," I heard him say. "Sorry kid." Jacob rolled and sighed.

"Some dad you are," Jake taunted, placing his hand on the doorknob. "If she's alone today, she's gonna get raped you know!" Jacob yelled before closing the door. He walked to the car and opened my door for me, muttering to himself.

I shook my head and slid inside the car at the same time he did. Before he started it up, he glanced over at me, but got caught up in the essence that is Calypso Kinnear I guess. His breathing became uneven and his eyes seemed to light up as they hungrily scanned me. I sincerely hoped that he wasn't haven't naughty thoughts about me. Or maybe I did. I wasn't quite sure yet.  
>"Jake," I murmured, snapping him out of his trace and forcing him to drag his eyes back to mine.<p>

"Hmm?" was all he was able to conjure up as he started the car, slowly coming back to reality.

"What did you mean when you told Sam 'some dad you are'?" I asked. He frowned at me as he backed out of the driveway and headed toward school.

"Well, I mean, he's kind of like the father figure in your life right now, just like Emily's the mother figure," he said simply. I smiled a little and seemed to become warmer inside. _Do they think of me that way?_ I wondered. _As their daughter?_It made me feel special to know—or at least think—that there were at least two people out there who wanted me to be theirs. I had wanted to be wanted for a long time.

At night, when I couldn't get to sleep due to the homewreckers and my dad gettin' busy in the next door room, I pulled out my hidden ear plugs, popped them in and fantasized not about being rich or having sex with a hot celebrity. I simply dreamed about what it would be like to have a family that loved me unconditionally. And friends who were fun and outgoing like me.

And the perfect guy. In my dreams he wasn't mind-blowingly handsome or rich or perfect in any sense of the word. But he was mine. Utterly mine. He would willingly crawl to the ends of the earth and back for me on cut glass if I asked him to. He was just someone I could call my own without a doubt in my mind or a fear in my heart. That's all I really wanted. Was someone to call mine.

"Calypso?" I heard Jake mutter. I snapped out of my daydream faze and looked over at him. "I'm sorry," he apologized, keeping his eyes glued to the road. I saw that he had his hands clenched tightly around the steering wheel and his biceps were flexing and un-flexing.

"For?" I asked, taken slightly off guard by his sudden apology.

"For leaving you for Jennifer yesterday. You needed me. It was your first day in an all-new school with all-new people. I promised that I would be yours that day and I didn't even take the time to make sure you got to your first class okay," he explained as I listened. I felt the butterflies in my stomach start up as I realized how sincerely sorry he was. He must've felt really bad all day yesterday.

We parked in his designated parking spot. After putting the car into park and turning it off, he put his hands on his thighs and looked at me. I gave him a reassuring smile. "Jacob, it's okay. It was ridiculous of me to expect you to be there every waking moment of my first day," I promised, but he shook his head.  
>Placing a warm hand on my cheek and leaning over so his face was closer to mine, he put his other hand on my waist. Cocking his head to the side and looking at me with those twinkling brown eyes of his, he began to speak. "No. That's all you should expect from me. I didn't deliver and I'm sorry," he breathed. I suddenly wanted so badly to close the three-inch gap between our lips and kiss him.<p>

Swallowing, I simply nodded and tuned away so he had to let go of me. It was weird, because as soon as his hands stopped touching my body, it was as if an electrical circuit was turned off. He got out, closed his door and opened mine for me. I graciously took his hand, grabbed my bag and began walking toward the school. Right after I got out of the car, the catcalls and wolf whistling began. I saw Jake tense up next to me and saw his fists clenching and un-clenching as we walked.

After about thirty seconds however, he protectively put his arm around me and held me close to his warm body. The sex requests and suggestions immediately stopped. Jake grinned proudly as we walked down the hall and gave intimidating looks to anyone who seemed to even be thinking of me in a less than gentlemanly way. It was a different story once we had reached the guys though. They weren't intimidated by Jake's size and bulk considering they all either matched him or were bigger than him. They were all chatting against my locker when Embry was the first to see me.

"DAAYUM!" he exclaimed, getting up from the lockers. He swaggered over to me, a lustful look in his eye as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "And may I put an emphasis on the yum," he murmured, pulling me in close, smiling now. I rolled my eyes and Jacob grabbed Embry by the shirt collar and pushed him into one of the nearby lockers with a loud bang, all without letting go of me. I noticed however that he had actually left a dent in the poor locker.

Embry laughed and walked beside us as we caught up to the rest of the guys. Paul let out a low whistle as he slowly scanned me up and down. "God how I'd like to tap that," he breathed, checking out my backside. I picked up and abandoned pen from the floor and chucked it at his head. Jacob just growled at him.

Putting his hands up in surrender, he laughed. "Alright, alright. I can take a hint," he promised, nodding his head, but still greatly appreciating my backside once again. Jacob rolled his eyes and placed me in front of him so that Paul could no longer drool over my ass. He, Jared and Seth eventually went their separate ways, so it was soon just me walking to class with Embry and Quil, Jake my voluntary escort.

Eventually we got there and Embry and Quil walked inside. I tried to go, but Jacob pushed me up against the wall of the gym, his hands on either side of me, right above my head. He was glaring down at me, his eyes narrowed. "I told you that outfit was gonna cause problems," he murmured. I smirked and snaked my arms up around his neck.

"You were right, I'm sorry," I apologized, stroking the nape of his neck. I hadn't noticed the little wisps of hair there. They were soft and baby like. It was comforting to know that there was some souvenir of his childhood left on him. It was nice to be reminded that he was definitely a child at one point or another. As big as he was, it was hard to be sure sometimes.

He sighed, softening a little, but not enough. I smiled playfully at him. I moved my hands up to his actual head and grabbed two handfuls of it and pulled his face to mine so our foreheads were touching. I was about to say, "I'm sorry," when his eyes went wide and gleamed with excitement. He took his hands from the wall behind me and pulled me into him, clutching desperately at my shirt.

Panting, he placed his mouth to the scoop between my neck and shoulder, but simply breathed in and out very fast. It was as if he wanted so badly so kiss me there, but he couldn't. _Why not…?_my conscience whined. My heart began beating uncontrollably and I wanted him to take me into the woods and please me more than I had wanted anything in my entire life. It was like a fire in my chest that slowly spread, making my whole body tingle on the verge of bursting.

I felt just about ready to combust and crumble when he straightened up stiffly, his eyes wide. He didn't seem to be able to look me in the face just at the moment. A light tinge came to his cheeks, making his face turn a darker shade of brown. "I have to go," he muttered simply. He then did an about face and sped off toward school, holding his books in front of his crotch.

I wondered about this sudden leave and the strange way he was holding his books and put two and two together. "Oh dear God," I murmured to myself as I entered the classroom and walked to the dressing rooms as realization hit me:

Jacob had gotten a boner.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Jacob's Point of View<strong>_

I was walking to the lunchroom, replaying my excuse to Calypso about my little friend this morning. _God, I'm such a screw up. What guy gets a boner from a girl clutching his hair?_I thought to myself. And then I realized that any reasonable male in my position would. The way she smelled, the eagerness in her eyes…the way she held my hair. Oh, God, I couldn't even describe how it felt to have her fingers tangled in my hair and dancing there. It was one of the greatest feelings I think I've ever experienced.

So I guess my untimely hard-on was perfectly reasonable.

But I couldn't tell Calypso that. I decided I would just say it was the wind. That happened to guys all the time, right? It's completely normal for an eighteen-year-old, male, virgin to get an erection due to the wind. All of a sudden, I felt myself being slammed up against a locker.

"Shit!" I cursed out loud and squinted up my eyes as my back collided with one of the deep blue lockers on the wall. Pain exploded in me, starting from my mid-back and radiating through the rest of it. Opening my eyes, I saw Paul glaring at me, his hand still clutching the collar of my gray t-shirt.

"Why?" he growled simply.

" 'Why' what?" I snapped, rubbing my now aching back.

"Why did I all of a sudden get..y'know…_excited_…while making a move on Penelope Terra?" he growled. Prying his hand off of me, I sighed and rolled my eyes as I began walking down the hall to the lunchroom again. Penelope Terra was known as the second—well, now third, since Calypso came—hottest girl in school. She was also a girl who liked to have sex and was known for being good at it.

"What do you mean?" I asked, now frustrated. I knew he could have been reading my mind during the incident, but how did that explain a common physical reaction as well?

"All I know is I was telling Penelope how beautiful her eyes were or some other crap like that when all of a sudden, I saw Calypso naked and clutching onto your hair while grinding on you for dear life," he explained. I smirked. That was exactly what I had been imagining, word for word.

Except for he left out the fact that I was naked as well.

"I was sexually aroused. That's how erections occur, Paul," I said, as if explaining this concept to a fifth grader as we entered the lunchroom.

"Well what was she doing to sexually arouse you? Blowing in your ear?" he asked, grabbing a tray and getting in line behind me.

_I wish_, I thought. When I didn't answer, he frowned at me and went on.

"Grinding on you?"

_I WISH_.

"Giving you a blowjob?" he hollered, now lost.

_God, what I would do for that…_

I sighed and told him the real reason for my little accident.

"She grabbed onto my hair." Paul stopped in the line, staring at me as if I were the strangest creature to ever walk the face of the earth.

"While grinding on you and blowing in your ear?" he asked, still confused. I shook my head.

"Nope," I confided. "That was it." When I didn't hear him answer, I stopped placing soggy fried chicken on my tray to see him gaping at me like I was the stupidest person he'd ever met, which was certainly what I felt like.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Jacob Black?" he questioned me. I shook my head and went to pay for my food, Paul right behind me. "We seriously need to get you laid, man," he concluded. I just rolled my eyes and went to sit down at our table. When I sat down, everyone there was staring at me.

"What?" I demanded. Jared just raised an eyebrow at me.

"You're gross, dude," he stated, returning his attention to his food. I understood why he was upset by it. He and Calypso had formed an extremely tight knit bond while she was here so that they now called each other siblings. I could see where he would be grossed out by seeing his little sister having sex with his friend.

"Man, you can't let your imagination be so big," Embry said. "I got _aroused_too," he said unenthusiastically. "I'm just lucky I was hidden by a desk…" he added.

"Same here," Seth said. I looked over at Quil, who was smirking evilly into his food.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked him warily.

"If we all saw it, guess who else saw it?" he riddled, looking up from his food to teasingly smile at me. I thought about for a second, and then realization struck me. I groaned and lay my head in my arms.

_Sam._

Everyone began laughing at the table when they heard my thoughts. I wasn't quite sure how Sam was going to react. And honestly, I wasn't sure I wanted to know.

"Hey, there's your girl right there," Seth said, nodding his head toward the lunch line. I looked up and saw Calypso in the lunch line. She seemed to be listening to her iPod, because it looked like she was humming and bobbing her head along to the music. It was hopelessly adorable and immediately made me smile.

Then, once I realized what I had to talk to her about, I sighed and my face became solemn once again. Getting up from the table, I began walking over to Calypso. "Hey," I murmured, tapping her on her shoulder to get her attention. She looked around abruptly, but as soon as her eyes collided with mine, she smiled, making my heart beat faster than it already was.

"Hey," she greeted happily, pulling the earphone out of her ear closest to me.

_Did she notice?_I wondered.

"So, um, about this morning—" She immediately cut me off.

"Oh, God, don't worry about it," she insisted, waving a hand at me before scooping some overcooked carrots onto her plate.

"Really?" I asked, surprised at how nonchalant she was about this.

"Yeah!" she said. "I mean, that's normal, right? If the wind blows the right way, then…" She seemed to decide that this wasn't what she meant to say, so she tried a different approach. "Accidents happen and it was just…" She sighed as she handed her money to the cashier lady, looking for the right words to use.

"It was just bad timing," she concluded, smiling at me as we walked back to the table. I gazed at her face for a few more seconds before answering. Even in this harsh cafeteria light, she seemed to glow, like the angel she was. Her scent drove me crazy, and it seemed to cut through the greasy public school lunchroom smell, and thoroughly dominate my senses. It seemed like vanilla with hints of cocoa and lavender. What parts of it were perfume and what parts were natural, I didn't know, nor did I care.

And the way her full, smooth lips curled when she smiled…it was perfect. Her white teeth next to her brown skin made everything stand out even more. Her nose was perfectly shaped for her face, as well. I didn't even know how to describe it really. It was just…perfect. _She_was perfect.

"Yeah," I finally agreed to her earlier question. She smiled wider at me before we sat down at the table.

"So. Has anyone tried to jump your bones yet?" Quil asked, tossing a chicken bone at a random boy's head from across the lunchroom just for kicks. It hit its mark, and the poor kid rubbed his head and turned around to glare at Quil before returning to eating his lunch.

Calypso, in turn, tossed a chicken bone from Paul's plate at Quil's head before beginning to eat her lunch. "A few guys, but I told 'em to get lost. I don't think I'm gonna be wearing this outfit again though," she admitted.

"No!" Embry exclaimed, making everyone look up at him. He looked around at all of us. "I mean, why punish everyone if a few of us guys can't control ourselves?" he asked. Jared rolled his eyes and snickered.

"Embry, you practically raped the poor girl this morning," Jared pointed out, taking another reluctant bite of his chicken.

"But what about the majority of guys here that _aren't_ like me and _can_control themselves," he accused as if he had a valid point. I laughed and shook my head.

"Embry, just eat your food," I ordered, doodling on my napkin.  
>Calypso grinned and put her iPod away, beginning to eat her food. "I just don't want to be sexually harassed all day again. I need a bodyguard," she sighed. I looked up from my napkin.<p>

"I thought I was your bodyguard," I said, hurt.

"Well, unless you're planning to transport me from class to class, that's not gonna work out," she concluded.

"Well I can if you want," I offered eagerly. I wanted to kick myself for acting so much like a hopeless puppy, but I wanted to show her that I was willing to protect her.

_Too bad you can't tell her you're a werewolf. Then she'd really feel safe_, Seth pointed out.

_I will soon_, I countered. _Just a few more months. I just need her to trust me…_

"Oh, Jake, we only have one more class before we both have Mr. Burns. It's really not necessary, I swear," she promised.

"Right," I nodded.

_One more class until she gets to see Kyle…_I mentally noted bitterly.

_**Calypso's Point of View**_

_One more class until I get to see Kyle…_I thought to myself.

He was the whole reason I had dressed the way I had today. Who knew a simple black skirt and white tee could induce so many raging hormones? I was hoping that he wouldn't be a pig and drool all over me, but wouldn't try to be so gentlemanly that he would pretend not to notice my ultra sexiness either.

Us girls and our conflicting expectations…

I glanced over at Jacob staring at me, very concentrated. It was almost as if he were trying to figure out what I was thinking. "What do you want Jake?" I asked him jokingly.

"I'm trying to figure out what you're thinking," he admitted, still squinting his eyes at me, his chin in his hand. I'm a friggin' genius. I smirked.

"You're extremely easy to read," I informed him. He frowned and sat up straight.

"Really?" he asked, shocked at my confession. I shook my head and smiled as I stood. Grabbing my tray, I stooped to kiss him quickly on his forehead before I left. He closed his eyes and sighed, his hands shaking. I couldn't blame him. I was surprised I didn't drop my tray after the electric current that raced through my body immediately after I placed my lips to his forehead.

Reluctantly, I pried my lips away from his warm skin and began to walk over to the trashcan. Right as I left however, I stumbled a bit, still a little disoriented from my goodbye kiss. "Dammit," I muttered quietly as I walked silkily across the lunchroom. Tossing my white paper tray into the trashcan, I hurried out the door, eager to get out of Jacob's line of sight.

_I just wanna see Kyle and go home…_I thought as I walked to the library.

Grabbing a book, I went to go sit down to read it. I liked reading. It was nice to sink into someone else's life. Their mind. That's why I loved acting so much. It allowed me to become someone else. Deal with someone else's problems. Theater was all a big game of dress-up. When I explained my complicated love of the stage to people, they didn't seem to understand. A lot of people seemed to think that it was an excuse for me to forget about my life.

To me, it wasn't an excuse; it was an escape.

Sinking into the life of Katniss Everdeen, I attempted to lose myself in District Twelve. I wasn't sitting in a school Library at La Push High School. I was hunting. I was an agile archer, rebelling in the woods to feed my poor family. And suddenly, I was no longer pretending to be Katniss Everdeen; I _was_Katniss Everdeen. I was reading my own story.

No, not reading it. Living it. This was me. Who I was. For a time. This was the only life I knew. The only life I had ever known. I had no idea that my life was a story, read by millions of people. I was simply me. Not Calypso Kinnear acting as Katniss Everdeen. But Katniss Everdeen. Period. Point blank.

That is, until Oliver Matthews came over.  
>"Hey, cutie," he hummed, sitting next to me. I sighed and plastered on a fake smile, once again becoming Calypso Kinnear: Senior at La Push High School and runaway from Brooklyn, New York.<p>

"Hi, Oliver," I greeted simply.

"I told you to call me Ollie," he gently reminded, putting a hand on my thigh. It took all my resistance not to punch him in his smug, pompous face. If there was one thing I couldn't hate more, was an entitled ass. Take Oliver Matthews for example.

Firmly grabbing his hand and placing it on his knee. "Oliver," I whispered, patting him reassuringly on his hand. "I'm really not comfortable with that," I told him, taking my hand away from his knee.

He gave a curt smile. "Oh, playing hard to get I see…" he muttered, as if I were totally transparent. Instead of dignifying him with an answer, I sighed and tried to return to reading my book, but it became quite a challenge to fully sink back into the character with Oliver eying me like a large protein shake right before a big game.

"You know, it's really sexy that you're so into books," he started, naughtily eying me. I was starting to become extremely agitated. Setting my book down with a little more force than necessary, I clasped my hands together and looked at him, wide eyed and sarcastically smiling.

"Is it really?" I screeched through clenched teeth as if it were the most exciting thing anyone had ever told me in my life. He smiled mischievously, obviously being either too dim or too uninterested to effectively respond to my obvious sarcasm to his stupid statement.

"Yeah," he replied, his eyes scanning me hungrily. "I can like, picture you wearing a white button up shirt undone low enough so that I can see some kind of…black, lacy satin push-up bra and…"

He kept going on even as I turned my head away and looked out the window. _Is he really talking dirty to me in the school library?_ I questioned in my head. I almost wanted to cry for Oliver's stupidity. _God, help me…_I pleaded silently. Just then, my secondhand Blackberry rang. I immediately fished it out of my backpack and answered it, not even checking to see who it was. "Hello?" I eagerly whispered into the receiver.

Looking over at Oliver and holding up a finger as if to say, This will only take a moment, I listened intently as I heard Jacob's smooth voice murmur, "I'm in the Quileute legends section." I knew it was his voice based on the simple fact that it gave me goose bumps all up and down my arms and legs.

"Dear God, Jake, I love you," I whispered hurriedly into the phone. He laughed, sending a shiver through my body.

"Yeah, well hurry," he ordered before hanging up. I smiled at the phone as I pulled it away from my ear, almost wishing that I could hear Jake's voice from it again even though I knew he was only a few yards away. Then, pretending to be thoroughly disappointed to leave Oliver, I turned to him frowning.

"What?" he asked sadly.

"My friend is desperately begging me to help him with his math homework," I lied smoothly, packing up my things. Oliver's face changed. He became really deep in thought.

"But…we don't have math homework yet…" he mumbled, obviously confused.

_Wow, maybe he's more advanced than I gave him credit for,_I admitted mentally. But I easily came up with another lie.

"Well, he got the homework early so that he can hurry and finish, just to be ahead," I told him. He nodded, as if that explanation made sense.

"Oh. Well, I'll see you around?" he asked eagerly, standing.

_I really hope not…_I wished inwardly.

"Totally!" I piped externally. Waving as I walked away, I headed to the Quileute legends section. Seeing Jacob smiling and holding his arms wide open at the end of the row, I couldn't help but smile as well.

"You're like my knight-in-shining-armor!" I screeched, pitching myself into his tan, toned arms. He hugged me close to him making me feel safe and welcome, as his hugs usually did.

"Glad to hear it," he responded with a final squeeze.  
>"So how did you know I needed your help?" I asked, folding my arms and cocking my hip.<p>

"I'm stalking you," he replied simply with a smug smile. I laughed and turned to the bookshelves.

"For some reason, that's not hard to believe…" I muttered just loud enough for him to hear. He chuckled and shook his head as he came to stand next to me. I pulled a leather bound book off the shelf and, looking at the front cover, turned to him. The title was written in golden calligraphy on the front and spine.

"Werewolves?" I questioned, raising one eyebrow and turning my gaze to him. He closed his eyes, nodded slowly, and then reopened his eyes. I laughed a little. "So what? Are you trying to tell me that the Quileutes came up with the whole idea for 'man who changes at the full moon, only dies with a silver bullet to the heart?'" He shook his head and shrugged.

"No. That's the white man version of that legend," he explained, coming to stand next to me. Opening up the front cover, the picture filled the very first page with a mass of brown hair and right in the center was the deep brown eyes.

I took these to be the piercing eyes of a werewolf.


	8. This Is NOT Snuggling

"_It's all make believe, isn't it?"_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

_Math_, I thought to myself. Taking a deep breath, I walked into the classroom, Jacob sulking right behind me. I glided into the room and saw Kyle sitting at our table, reading a book once again. I took a quick intake of breath as I watched him ruffle up his silky black hair, his purple eyes sparkling. I walked over to him, reminding myself to breathe as I watched his eyes scan the page of his book. Setting my books down on the corner of the table, I pretended not to notice when he looked up at me.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him look me up and down, his eyes seeming to undress me. And, surprisingly, I didn't seem to mind. "Hey," I greeted simply as I sat in my chair, finally turning my gaze to him.

"Hey," he breathed, his eyes now resting on mine. I smiled at him. "How—how are you?" he asked, now regaining composure. Closing his book and setting it aside, he straightened up and looked at me once again.

"Good. Tired," I replied. And it wasn't a lie. I had been up all night the night before, thinking about Kyle and how today would go. Shame on me. It was only the second day of school and I was already starting to fall hopelessly for some boy. Sigh.

"You look…" he started. Pausing to scan me once again, he let his purple eyes collide with my brown ones as he smiled. "Hot," he finished, raising an eyebrow at me. I laughed as I looked down at the table.

"You're quite straightforward, aren't you?" I asked, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. I silently thanked God that I had chocolate brown skin, or else he would see my blush.

"No reason to beat around the bush," he pointed out. "I'm just saying what every other guy is thinking. Minus a few kinky details." I looked back up at him, my eyes wide and a smile on my face. He winked at me, making my heart leap.

"Class, eyes to the front please," Mr. Burns ordered. Our eyes lingered on each other for a few more moments before I smirked and looked back to the front of the class, Kyle following my lead a few moments later.

Throughout the forty-five minutes, we kept sneaking glances at each other and smiling, quickly averting our gaze when our eyes met. Finally, the bell rang, and both of us gathered our things.  
>"So um, do you think you'd mind going out on another 'friend outing' tonight?" Kyle asked me as we walked to my locker. I looked over at him. Although I tried not to look it, I was thrilled. My heart was pumping and I felt just about ready to fly.<p>

"What do you mean?" I inquired as I opened my locker. I kept my eyes trained on the lock to open it up. _Right 21, left 43, right 7…_

My locker opened up, revealing my black bag. _Sweet success._

"I dunno. Maybe we could like, go see a movie, get something to eat. Or go bowling. Or indoor rock climbing, I really don't mind; it'd be up to you," he rambled, making me smile as we began walking toward his locker.

"Like…a date?" I tried to clarify, cocking an eyebrow at him. He thought about it as he opened his locker, concentrating excessively on his combination as well. Then, once he had pulled out his backpack and helmet, he looked to me and smiled.

"Yeah," he answered shutting his locker door. We proceeded down the hallway. "Like a date." I smiled at him until a few seconds later, I felt a pair of arms wrap around my middle from behind me and yank me back a few inches.

"Oof," I groaned, doubling over. I knew it was one of the boys; my back suddenly became about twenty degrees warmer.

"Hey, you," a voice whispered in my ear, sending chills up my spine. Jacob.

"Hey," I greeted half-heartedly, prying myself away from him to walk next to Kyle. Jake walked on the other side of me. I definitely didn't want Kyle to get the wrong idea about Jake and me. Especially since he seemed to be a little disappointed and threatened at the same time. And I couldn't really blame him. If I was a guy trying to make my move on some girl and all of a sudden, Jacob Black comes up and hugs her?

What guy wouldn't be threatened by him? He was beautiful, _extremely_ well-built, tan, sparkling eyes…

He was kind…gentle…funny…sweet…

I shook myself out of my temporary stupor and returned my attention to Kyle, who was now looking simply confused. "Kyle, this is my friend, Jacob. Jake, this Kyle," I introduced politely from between the boys.

"Aw, c'mon Calypso. Just friend? I practically live with you!" he exclaimed, pulling me into him from around my waist. I looked back and saw the shock on Kyle's face. Pushing myself away from Jake rather roughly, I turned all of my attention to Kyle.

"He doesn't actually live with me. He's just a mooch. He and all of his friends. They only come to eat our food, that's really it," I tried to explain frantically, turning my back on Jake as all three of us proceeded to the front doors.

"That's not the only reason. We come to see you too," he added, putting his arms around my waist from behind and resting his chin on my shoulder. Now I saw what he was trying to do. He was _trying_to threaten Kyle! Wasn't he already doing enough just by being here? Why couldn't he just keep quiet and let me fix what he had already damaged?

"I mean, if you were us, wouldn't you wanna come see her too? Prancing around the house in her Victoria's Secret—"

"_Jake!_" I hissed, turning my head to face him.

"And what about her face?" he continued, now stopping, making me stop and Kyle as well. "Isn't it just the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?" he asked Kyle, squishing my cheeks together with one of his giant hands, making my lips form a pout. Crossing my eyes first to look at my lips, I then frowned and cut my eyes at him.

"Jake!" I screeched. The sound came out rather mangled though, considering the current state of my mouth.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is." That was Kyle's voice. My eyes looked to him and I was caught rather off-guard by the intensity of which he was staring at me. His eyes looked hurt, making my desire to kick Jake in his balls increase. Kyle turned and left, deciding to leave the school another way.

I simply stared at the place where Kyle had been mere moments ago, the vision of his eyes burning a hole in my brain. Maneuvering my head so that my face was no longer pressed between Jacob's fingers, I pushed away from him.

"You're an ass, you know that?" I screamed at him, shoving him against a locker, him laughing all the while. He seemed to think he was really clever. I stormed off, now walking full speed toward the doors. Who knew Jake could be such a jerk…

_**Jacob's Point of View**_

_Why'd I have to be such a jerk? _I thought to myself, leaning the back of my head up against the locker. Maybe I had pushed it just a bit too far. But only a bit.

Standing up straight, I started to walk after her, but I was stopped in my tracks at the sight of her perfect…well, for lack of a better word…ass. Stopping to stare for a few moments, I finally regained my composure and walked after her. Since Calypso was still quite a few yards in front of me once we got outside, I expected her to meet me at the truck…

But then she walked right past it!

"Wait, Calypso!" I shouted. She was walking by the school towards Emily and Sam's house now, quite a ways away. I ran to my truck, opened the door, put my key in the ignition and…

And…

Aaaand…

Nothing. "Dammit," I muttered, leaning against my seat. My truck was having one of its days. Every now and again, it decided that it wouldn't start because it was mad at me or something. I guess it had a right to be mad at me though. I had been kind of an ass. I looked up and saw that Calypso was only a speck in the distance, still walking extremely fast.

"I hope she doesn't walk too fast," I muttered. "She might literally walk her ass off." And that would be too bad.

I had been sitting in the car for about five minutes trying to start my lovable piece of crap. Calypso was probably halfway home by now. Finally, I turned my key in the ignition and heard my car roar to life.

"It's about time, you load of junk!" I shouted affectionately , smiling and patting my dashboard. Then, I put my foot to the gas pedal, pressed down and sped out of the almost empty parking lot. I drove down the road, looking for Calypso everywhere. Finally, I saw a perfectly shaped black and white figure walking down the sidewalk. "Gotcha," I murmured, eyeing my prey.

I let the car slowly rumble up to where she was and I drove beside her. I had to lean over and roll down the passenger side window to talk to her, all while driving the car. _This girl's got me jumping through hoops for her. This whole imprinting thing is starting to become just a bit obnoxious…_

I watched as she pushed her beautiful hair behind her ear. Her profile was breathtaking. I almost forgot to keep the car going straight as I admired the perfect way her nose was shaped, or how her cheekbones were flawlessly structured, or how the heart shaped birthmark on the back of her neck seemed to be tilted slightly on its side.

_…but I don't mind._

"Calypso, get in the car," I ordered softly. She gave me no answer, but simply kept walking. "Calypso, c'mon! I thought you two would be able to take a joke—" She cut me off, as I knew she eventually would.

"You were being a bitch, Jake! 'Prancing around in her Victoria's Secret?' Really?" she screeched, turning only her head to look at me.

"You were the one who didn't let me finish. I was going to say 'Victoria's Secret _pajamas,_'" I teased. She scoffed at me, turned her head and kept on walking. Now I was getting frustrated. Pushing my foot onto the gas, I zoomed a few feet ahead of her and then swerved onto the sidewalk, right in front of her. She stumbled back and glared at me as I reached over and opened the passenger side door.

"Get in," I demanded in a level voice. She narrowed her eyes at me and stuck out her tongue. Then, shifting her bag to her other elbow, she walked around the back of my truck so she was in the street for a few moments, then back up onto the sidewalk. Looking back out my windshield, I sighed. "I can't believe I'm about to do this…" I muttered, closing my eyes.

Turning off the engine and closing the passenger door, I got out, locked the car and headed off after Calypso. "C'mon, I said I was sorry," I protested, walking beside her. She shook her head.

"No actually. You didn't," she informed me.

"Really?" I asked. "I could've sworn I did…" I thought aloud.

"Well, you didn't," she snapped, looking at me for a few seconds only to glare. She then returned her attention ahead of her. I sighed and stepped in front of her, making her stop.

Placing my hands on her shoulders (silently taking note of how perfectly my hands fit there) and bending my knees slightly to look her in the eye, I said, "Well, I'm sorry." She sighed and looked toward the sky with her eyes only, a slight smile on her face.

"For...?" she cued. I rolled my eyes and smiled.

"I'm sorry for being an ass," I apologized. She returned her gaze to me and smiled softly, making my insides melt.

She nodded and placed her arms around my waist. I straightened up, but craned my neck as she stood on tiptoe to kiss me on my forehead for the second time today. I let my eyes flutter closed as her lips rested on my skin, my body ready to combust. Then, that dreaded moment came where her lips left me. Taking in a deep, shaky breath, I straightened up and wrapped my arms around her waist as well.

"You're forgiven," she whispered to me, smiling. I beamed down at her. Then, rather suddenly, I scooped her up onto my back, my hands cupped below her knees like the semi-gentleman I am. "Jake! What are you doing? Where are we going?" she shrieked in my ear as I changed our normal route to Sam and Emily's place.

"To my house," I briefly explained, running with her on my back. I could hear her laughter in my ear, making my heart and stomach leap with joy at her glee. We continued like that for sometime. She eventually became accustomed to the new transportation method. She laid her head on my shoulder, and tightened her legs around my hips.

"We're almost there," I informed her, slowing my run to a jog.

"Wanna race?" she asked, lifting her head off my shoulders. I glanced back at her, now slowing to a walk.

"You think you can beat me?" I inquired curiously, cocking an eyebrow. She slid off my back.

"I dunno. Maybe," she admitted, putting her hands on her hips. I sighed and smiled at her.

"Alright," I agreed. We lined our toes up at the nearest crack in the sidewalk. She began taking off her flats. "Ready…" I started. "Set…" Calypso sped off, running down the road.

"HEY! THAT'S CHEATING!" I shouted before running after her. She looked, around still running, letting her long, raven black hair whip around in the wind. Her smile was breathtaking and her laugh was just…it was beyond words. The sun broke through the clouds for just a moment and shined purely on her, basking her in halo of light. She was a vision. My heart beat for her; I lived to hold her and make all her troubles disappear. She was my life, the reason I was created. In short…

I loved her.

And I already knew that, but it every now and again, the thought would hit me so abruptly and so violently and so wonderfully that I couldn't help but smile.

"Jake, which house?" she yelled, still running the other way. I smiled as a diabolical plan formed in my head. I pointed to a bright blue house a few doors down from mine.

"That one!" I shouted. I knew for a fact that a cranky college student in her early twenties lived there and she hated being disturbed. "Just run on in, I'm sure the door's open. I think my dad's out!" She nodded and ran up the stone steps to the white door. I watched as she opened it up, me running even faster now so as to get to my house first. She disappeared into the house, closing the door after her and…

Wait for it…

_Wait for it_…..

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY HOUSE?" I heard the girl's voice shriek as Calypso backed out of the house. I was now at my front porch, watching everything from there.

"I'm so sorry!" she apologized over and over again as she backed down the flower lined pathway, her hands up in surrender. The girl slammed the door, still shouting in her house. I had doubled over with laughter on my porch. I watched through the iron railings lining my front steps as Calypso turned to yell at me.

"You!" she screeched through her laughter, jogging to my porch. I straightened up, still laughing at her. "You dirty little bastard!" she giggled. I lifted a finger and waggled it at her.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk! Let's watch our language, shall we?" I requested sarcastically. She finally reached the porch. She playfully hit me on my chest.

"Is this your house?" she asked, gesturing to the door. I nodded as I stuck my key into the lock and opened the door.

"Home, sweet home," I welcomed, throwing my arms wide once we stepped over the threshold.

"Jake, is that you?" I heard my dad shout from the living room.

_**Calypso's Point of View**_

A brown old man in a wheelchair rolled out of what appeared to be the living room and around the corner into the kitchen, which Jake and I were standing in. I figured we had entered through the side door. The man had long black hair and small, twinkling brown eyes. They matched Jacob's exactly.

I guess you could say he was beautiful. His face was worn with smile lines, crow's feet and a bunch of other types of wrinkles. I was sure a lot of them had stories behind them. "Hey, Dad," Jake greeted. The man's smiling face was fixed on mine.

"Is this who I think it is?" he asked his son. I saw Jake give a small smile from my peripheral vision.

"This is Calypso. She just moved here about a month ago," he introduced. "Calypso, this is my dad." I reached out a hand to shake the man's.

"Call me Billy," the man insisted as his warm, leathery hand shook mine. I noticed that it wasn't nearly as warm as Jacob's, who always seemed to be about twenty degrees warmer than any other human.

"Cool beans!" I giggled, hoping to charm him. Letting go of my hand, he threw back his head and laughed.

"Sam said you were funny," he told me. I felt a jolt go through my body as I comprehended Billy's words.

"He told you about me?" I asked him, raising my eyebrows.

Billy smiled. "That boy never stops talking about you. And neither does this one," he teased, nodding towards Jacob. Jake frowned and his toasted marshmallow colored skin became slightly redder.

"Dad," he hissed, his eyes now daggers. I smiled and shook my head. Just then, another man came out from the living room. Unlike Billy, he was walking and was decked out in what looked like a Sheriff's uniform. The man smiled at me.

"You must be Jake's girl," he laughed, reaching a hand over Billy's chair to shake mine, his other hand holding a beer can. Jake sighed and rolled his eyes. I laughed.

"I guess so," I resigned. For some reason, I didn't seem to mind being known as "Jake's girl," and the butterflies in my stomach that appeared whenever Jacob was around got especially excited. I shook the man's hand and it, like Billy's, was an average temperature.

"I'm Charlie," he introduced himself, his hand letting go of mine.

"I'm Calypso," I acquainted.

"Have you read _The Odyssey_?" Charlie asked me. He took a sip of his beer with his eyes trained on me as I answered.

"A few times," I replied, nodding.

"How'd you like Calypso?" he questioned. I shrugged.

"She's okay. I mean, it was kind of selfish of her to try and keep Odysseus forever, but I guess I get it. She was a beautiful goddess trapped on an island with nothing but female company and the only men that ever wandered by were too incompetent for a goddess like herself. If I were her and I stumbled upon the first guy in decades that was worthy of me, I'd hold onto him too." Billy and Charlie nodded their heads in approval.

"And Odysseus is an ass anyway. I'm sure no one really missed him too much," I added with a wink. Everyone laughed at that.

"Do you like Greek Mythology?" Jake asked me as we sat down on the couch. I was in between him and Charlie, Billy in his wheel chair next to the sheriff. "You seem to talk about it a lot," he pointed out.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool. I'm not quite sure why I like it so much, but I find it interesting," I admitted.

"Whose your favorite god?" Billy asked me.

"Aphrodite," I answered immediately. All the guys groaned.

"What is this?" Jacob exclaimed, laughing. "First your favorite color's yellow, now your favorite goddess is Aphrodite. What's next? You like white chocolate?" I smiled and looked Jacob right in his eye.

"I _love_white chocolate!" I admitted proudly. All the guys groaned again and I laughed, picking my head back up.

"Why don't you stay for dinner, Calypso?" Billy offered. Charlie's face brightened at the idea.

"We could have a barbecue," he suggested. I smiled.

"That sounds yummy!" I agreed. Jacob smiled beside me and I smiled at him as well.

"Let's go get it set up," Bill said, wheeling himself into the kitchen, Charlie right behind him.

"Consider the parentals charmed," he sighed, putting an arm across the back of the couch behind me. I furrowed my brow.

"Wait…Charlie and Billy…they're not…y'know…together?" Jacob frowned at my question. My eyes widened and I waved my hands in the air shaking my head.

"Because I'm okay if they are! I just didn't know—" Jacob began laughing and shaking his head.

"No, they're not like that. They're just really good friends is all," he assured me. I became calm once again as Jacob composed himself. "But you had to impress Charlie because I used to have a thing for his daughter and Charlie was all for it. You just had to prove to him that you're better for me."

I cocked an eyebrow. "So this was me getting their blessing to date you?" I asked him. His eyes widened as he realized my question. I smirked and looked at the blank T.V screen as he answered.

"No! No, no, no, no, no. This was more like you proving you're cool because—"

"Because you talk about me so much?" I teased, looking back at him now as I leaned against him. I could feel his body tense up as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me closer. I settled myself into him and rested my chin on his chest, looking up at him. He was staring right over my head at the wall, smiling.

I silently appreciated the way his jaw line was so strong and the shape and thickness of his eyebrows. His black hair—longer than any of his friends'—was naturally spiky in the way most guys spent hours in the mirror trying to achieve.

"Shut up," was all he could muster as a comeback to my previous taunting. He looked down at me and grinned, making my heart beat so fast that I was sure he could feel it, just as I could feel his hammering as well. I grinned and laid my head on his chest, listening to his uneven breathing and his racing heart as we snuggled as I closed my eyes.

_No, not snuggle. This is not snuggling. I repeat this is not snuggling. You are simply lying on your friend, unable to control your breathing. This is a perfectly normal thing for friends to do. No snuggling is occurring at this moment._

I cherished the way his fingers stroking my scalp and hair felt as we lay there, the only sounds being Jacob's heart and Charlie and Billy from the backyard.

_I could get used to this not snuggling thing…_

* * *

><p>"Have a good night, Calypso. It was so nice meeting you," Billy said on my way out the door with Jacob.<p>

"You too! Good night, Charlie!" I shouted over my shoulder as we headed down the stairs.

"'Night, Calypso! Take care of that girl, Jake," he ordered as Jake and I headed down the street.

"Will do, Charlie. I'll be home soon," Jacob shouted to his dad without looking back. And with that, we heard the door close.

"Your dad's a sweetheart. And so is Charlie," I said, smiling as I reflected on the night. After eating hot dogs and hamburgers, we all played games like _Sorry!_ , _Uno_, _Life_ and got halfway through a game of _Monopoly_before we realized it was ten o'clock on a school night.

"Meh. He's alright," Jacob admitted, smiling at the ground as we both took a right.

"You're really lucky, you know that? And whoever Charlie's daughter is? Bella? She's really lucky too," I informed him with a sharp pang of jealousy in my chest. I kept my eyes glued to the ground, but I saw Jacob look at my profile and frown.

"What makes you say that?" he questioned softly. I looked up and frowned into the night, the cool wind blowing my hair back and brushing my cheeks.

"My dad sucks," I said simply. My heart throbbed sadly, knowing that that statement was all too true. Jacob shook his head.

"Aw c'mon, your old man can't be that bad," Jacob insisted lightly.

"Do you know how many conversations we've had from the time I could talk to the time I ran away?" I asked him, desperately willing my voice not to crack as I turned to look at him. Jacob's expression was filled with sorrow as he watched my face. "Eight," I spat, anger flooding my veins now. "He cared enough eight times to wonder about me. How I was doing—_what _I was doing!

"My brother and I could have come home at any hour of the night, high, knocked up, drunk, and he wouldn't even notice." Jacob frowned slightly at me.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad," he murmured, not wanting to believe that people actually had lives like that; parents like that.  
>"My brother came home with girls, drunk and high plenty of times. My dad was always too busy planning his next drug deal or getting busy with a hooker to notice, let alone care," I hissed.<p>

"Did he ever…hurt you?" Jacob asked, an expression of worry mingled with protectiveness on his face. I snorted and looked away, kicking at a small pebble on the ground.

"No. But sometimes, I'd wish he did hit me. Then I'd have no doubt that he knew I existed. I wished he would yell profanities at me about being a slut and never being good enough for anything besides lying on my back. Then, at least I'd know he cared what I became and how the world saw me." My voice was beginning to tremble now and I could feel traitorous tears threatening to spill over.

Jacob didn't say anything, though I could sense that he desperately wanted to—wanted to say something to comfort me, to make everything better—but he knew he couldn't. And instead of trying, he just stopped and held me. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest, breathing in his intoxicating scent. I no longer wanted to cry. I no longer felt the need to. Everything was suddenly fine and perfect. My upside down world was tipped right side up with nothing but a simple embrace.

We held each other like that for some time before we walked the rest of the way to the car—both his arms around my shoulders and both mine around his waist—in silence. When we arrived at the car, parked horizontally across the sidewalk, I hugged him again. "I'm sorry," I apologized, now embarrassed by my impromptu freak-out session.

I didn't know why I had opened up like that to him. I didn't open up with anybody like that. Ever. But there was something different about Jacob. Something that made me feel safer. Like I could tell him anything I dared and he wouldn't only listen, but be accepting of it and me as well. Those two qualities were very hard to find in a person, especially the latter. I couldn't put my finger on what made Jacob so different. Not yet…

Jake grinned down at me, a quizzical expression on his face.

"You're apologizing because your dad's an S.O.B?" he asked. I laughed and hugged him tighter before letting go.

"Just open the damn car," I giggled, stepping back so he could do so. He put the key in the passenger side door, shaking his head and chuckling. He opened my door for me, as he always does and I slid onto the brown leather seat. He closed my door and walked around to the driver's side, getting in as well. He put the key in the ignition and started the car, now turning down the road toward Sam and Emily's house.

"So who is Bella, anyway?" I asked curiously. I was quite eager to know whom it was that Jake had had a crush on for so long.

"Bella is an old family friend," he said, obviously not wanting to go a lot further than that. I however, being stubborn, pushed on with my questioning.

"Whom you used to like," I contributed. He nodded, his eyes now glued to the road. "A lot," I continued. He nodded again.

"I loved her," he declared plainly. My heart seemed to hurt just a bit. Okay, not just a bit. It felt like it had been wrenched out of my chest and strewn across the road in front of us for Jacob to run over in his truck. "And I still do," he added, my throat ready to scream. "But not like that anymore. Like a sister," he clarified. I nodded, my heart climbing back into my chest, seemingly unharmed. I didn't understand why it had hurt so much to comprehend the thought of him once romantically loving another girl and I didn't want to delve deep enough to discover why. The thought terrified me.

"What was she like?" I asked him.

"Pretty. Kind. She was quiet, but secretly had a sense of humor," he reminisced with a slight smile on his face. I tried frantically to keep the obnoxious little green monster named Jealousy at bay, but he crept into my thoughts like the little demon he was.

"She was determined. And it was funny because she looks so frail; when she got mad at me, I couldn't help but be reminded of a bunny shouting at a wolf," he explained. He laughed now, and his laughter was full of affection. My heart squeezed tight, as if it were defending itself from any more harm. And now I was even more anxious to defeat my jealousy, and even more resolute to not understand why I was reacting in this way.

"What happened?" I asked, skillfully composing my voice like the actress I am. Jacob's face darkened.

"She didn't love me enough," he answered bitterly. "She was in love with a boy named Edward Cullen and, inevitably, he was in love with her as well. They got married. Had a kid. And now they live happily ever after in their perfect house with their perfect family in Forks, Washington." I couldn't help but take note of the fact that he was gripping the steering wheel so hard, he had left dents in it.

"How old is she?" I asked him.

"Eighteen," he muttered, his voice becoming light again, but not his face. "Technically," I thought I saw him mouth. I was shocked at the age. That was only one year older than me!

"Did she ever go to college?" I asked incredulously. Jacob simply shook his head and clutched the steering wheel even tighter now. I was afraid it would break.

"He took so much from her…" he whispered in a voice I had never heard from him or even expected he was capable of.

"Are they still happy?" I questioned as we pulled into the gravel driveway in front of the small, faded gray house.

"As far as I know," he answered. And then, the most horrible question for both Jacob and me…

"Do you miss her?"

Jacob put the car in park, and then there was silence. Jacob leaned back in his chair and furrowed his brow, staring ahead at the small house.

"Yes," whispered, turning to me after a few moments of thought.

"Then why don't you visit her?" I asked, mentally kicking myself for the suggestion. "If you miss her this much, she probably misses you too." It pained me to be putting this idea into his head, but it hurt a million times worse to see him this way. He looked at me curiously, as if I was some foreign organism.

"Will you come with me?" he asked cautiously. I was about ready to leap with joy. He wanted me to come see his old flame? He didn't want desperately to be alone with her and convince her to return to him? Not that I cared or anything…

"Yeah! Sure, I'd love to! When?" I agreed. Jacob smiled at my enthusiasm.  
>"Let's try for tomorrow after school. I'll have to call them of course, but if they answer…well, we'll see how it goes," he told me as he got out of the car. Walking around to my side of the car, he held my door open for me as usual.<p>

"Jacob, you're gonna have to wind it down on the gentleman act. I'm gonna get spoiled," I teased as we walked down the drive to the side door.

"Gladly," he growled, pulling my body into his so that I was pressed snugly into his warm, firm body. My heart sped up so fast and became so loud, I would've been surprised if he couldn't hear it. I wanted so badly not to be affected by this act, this joke…but with the way the moonlight reflected off his skin giving him an angelic glow and the way his eyes glittered and how his strong arms were holding me so close to him in such a seductive way…

...it would have been impossible not to be affected.

"Jacob, stop it," I breathed pathetically, an unconvincing and frequently faltering smirk on my face. I convinced myself to push away from him, but as soon as I did, I immediately regretted it, missing the feel of his body against mine. Jacob smiled and we began to walk back down to the house. The porch light was on and I saw Emily and Sam sitting at the table, holding hands and talking. I admired how they interacted. It was as if they were the only two people in the world. They were so apparently and violently in love, it made Romeo and Juliet seem like vengeful enemies.

They weren't like those couples that had to be touching and kissing all the time to let the world know they loved each other. No, all anyone had to do was catch Sam in the act when he smiled at Emily from across the room, across the chaos, and immediately, that person would know that they were meant to be. I longed for a love like that. Craved it, needed it. I yearned for it so badly, it made my heart break just to think that that would be nearly impossible.

But then I remembered how dangerous that was. "The harder you fall, the more it hurts when you land," was what I had always lived by. It would suck to wake up next to your fat, smelly husband and remember when he was fit and charming and spontaneous. When he loved you and you loved him and nothing in the world could ever tear you apart. No. It's definitely better to never really be in love and avoid life-threatening heartbreak when reality hits. Fairy tale love didn't exist, hence the name fairy tale love. It was stupid to covet such a thing and I felt stupid for wanting it, even just for a moment.

"Hey, you wanna see if they even notice us?" Jake asked, snapping me out of my angsty brooding. I looked up at his smiling face and my body and soul immediately sprang to life once again as my eyes met his. I nodded and we both ran silently to the window. We made a bunch of silly faces and crazy poses in the window—Jake actually mooned them once—but they didn't even notice, they were so wrapped up in each other's presence. Laughing after about two minutes of this infantile behavior, Jake and I walked into the kitchen.

"Hey, lovebirds," he greeted as if he didn't just attempt to show them his bare ass a few minutes ago. Emily and Sam looked up from each other's faces and over to Jake. They seemed to be quite disoriented, as if waking up from a deep sleep with dreamy smiles on their faces.

"Oh! You're back!" Emily said. I noticed she didn't let of Sam's hand however.

"How was it?" she asked me as I walked over to lean against the counter. Sam seemed to be eyeing Jacob warily as he crossed the kitchen to lean next to me, but he didn't notice.

"Awesome. Billy and Charlie kick major ass," I replied, smiling and nodding my head. Jake went to put his arm around my waist, but retracted it as soon as it touched me due to Sam's low growl. I frowned at this interaction as Jake blushed and used his arm to scratch his head instead, looking at the ground.

"I've gotta go," he murmured, beginning to walk away. For some reason, my heart seemed to cry at the thought of him leaving without saying goodbye.

"Wait! You'll be here in the morning to pick me up?" I inquired, clutching at his hand. Jacob turned and smiled at me.

"Of course, silly," he said, leaning over to kiss me on the forehead. "That's my favorite part of the day," he added in a silky, seductive voice that gave me goosebumps. I grinned and let go of his hand. Watching him walk out the door, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness as he left.

"I'm gonna go to bed, I'm pooped," I said to Sam and Emily. We all exchanged our goodnights as I kissed each of them on the cheek. Heading upstairs to my room, I brooded myself to sleep, hating the fact that Jake and I could no longer spend every waking moment of every day with each other the way we had during the summer.

"Stupid school," I yawned before turning on my side and drifting peacefully into La La Land…

_**Jacob's Point of View**_

Sam had obviously seen my fantasy this morning. I could only wonder how I would ever get him to trust me alone with Calypso again. Sam already felt an insanely strong connection with Calypso as I read from his thoughts, and I could only imagine that Emily felt the same way. No wonder he had reacted so strongly when I tried touch her below her chin. I wondered about how tomorrow would go when he and I would actually have to speak. I shuddered at the thought. I pulled into the garage out back and got out of the car, practically sprinting into the house.

"Hey, Jake," Billy said as I rushed past him to the kitchen to get the phone. Charlie had gone home, so my dad was sitting in the living room, sipping a soda—he had already had a grand total of four beers tonight—and inattentively watching what seemed to be a cooking show. I immediately picked the phone up off the receiver and dialed Bella's number. I knew she wouldn't be asleep. She was one of _them_now and she didn't sleep. The thought pained me; made me want to tear my heart out. I hadn't wanted this for her. I had wanted her to stay human. Why couldn't she have just stayed human? What was so wrong with that? The phone rang once…twice…three times…. Just when I thought she wouldn't answer, she picked up.

"Hello?" said a melodic voice through the phone. For a minute, I thought I had the wrong number. Bella's voice wasn't that whimsical. It was normal. But then I realized that Bella wasn't normal anymore, so why should her voice be? Apparently, I had spent quite a while thinking, because Bella had to say, "Hello?" again before I replied.

"B-Bella?" I stammered, not wanting her to hang up on me. "It's Jake," I said. There was silence.

"Jake?" she whispered excitedly. I smiled when I realized that she was happy to hear my voice. "Oh my God! I haven't heard from you in so long! How are you?" she asked.

"I'm great. I was wondering how you're doing actually," I said.

"I'm fantastic, as is the family. Renesmee looks like she's eight now, can you believe it? An eighteen-month-old looking like she's eight?" Bella gasped, awe-struck.

"Jeez! That's amazing, Bells!" I exclaimed, using her old nickname.

"Isn't it!" she giggled.

"Bella, I was actually wondering something," I told her, beginning my request.

"Yeah?" she breathed.

"Could I come over after-school tomorrow? Y'know, to say hi? Catch up? I miss you and…" I stopped after that, unable and unwilling to finish my sentence. Bella was silent. I was afraid she would deny my request.

"Jake…I would love that," she answered, her voice trembling. I smiled, elated at how thrilled she was to be able to see me.

"And, I have to ask one more thing," I said.

"Shoot," she allowed.

"I've…I've imprinted and I was wondering if I could bring her along too," I requested nervously.

"Are you serious, Jake? Oh my God! That would be wonderful! I can't wait to meet her. Tell me about her!" she demanded happily. I smiled and sat on the counter.

"Bella, she's the most amazing girl in the world. She's beautiful, smart, hilariously funny, kind, wild, loud, absolutely nuts and one day she's gonna be all mine," I told her dreamily, whispering the last part.

"One day?" she muttered, confused.

"Well, she doesn't seem to be romantically into me yet, but she's getting there. I can feel it," I assured her, completely confident. I could practically hear Bella smiling.

"Of course you can bring her along. I can't wait to meet her. So you guys will be here around two? Two thirty?" she asked. I nodded, but then realized I was on the phone, so she couldn't interpret that.

"Yeah," I confirmed.

"Alright. Talk to you soon, Jake," she said.

"Bye," I said, getting ready to hang up.

"And Jake? One last thing," she insisted. I waited. "Thanks for calling. It's good to hear your voice. It's…good to know you still care," she murmured. I grinned, my heart swelling.

"Anytime, Bella, honey. I'll see you soon," I said softly into the phone. She then hung up, as did I. Today had been quite a successful day.


	9. Reunited

_"__There's only one sort of natural blonde on earth—albinos."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

Jacob finally navigated his way through the narrow, secluded, maze-like passage and we were parked in front of a big white house. There was one large wall-to-wall window at the front of the house, allowing me to see right through it into the neat, organized living room furnished with white leather couches and sofas, a large flat screen T.V mounted on the wall and a grand piano. Classical music drifted out of the house and through the cracked window.

"_Es_ you ready _para_ this?" Jacob asked in deliberately bad Spanish. I looked at him quizzically, smirking.

"What was that?" I asked him.

"It was Spanglish," he replied, laughing. I shook my head.

"_Si, mi es_ ready _amigo_," I replied jokingly.

"Yours sounded more Spanish than mine did," he said, turning off the car. I laughed and reached for my door handle.

"Wait! I have to open your door for you!" he shouted from the gravel. I took my hands off the handle and put them up in surrender.

"Alrighty," I agreed, amused.

"Alrighty," he repeated, narrowing his eyes at me as if he were watching me. We stared each other down as he closed his door and walked around the car, finally opening my door. "Now," he started. "Get out."

"Make me," I threatened playfully, crossing my arms and raising an eyebrow. He blinked at me.

"GET YOUR BOOTY OUTTA THE CAR!" he yelled, pulling me out of my seat. I was laughing hysterically as he tickled me.  
>"Jake, stop! STOP!" I laughed. "I'm gonna pee myself!" I screeched, frantically hopping up and down.<p>

"That's always your excuse!" he shouted as he tickled me even harder.

"JACOB!" I squealed, trying to wiggle out of his tight hold.

"No tickle fights in the front yard!" a little girl shouted, running out the front door. She looked to be about eight. Jacob was standing behind me with his arms holding me to his chest and his chin on my shoulder. I leaned my head against his as well with my hands on top of his.

"Why not?" I asked, as I looked at her. She had to be just about the most beautiful child I had ever seen. She had rosy cheeks and golden eyes that stood out even more in contrast to her pale skin. Long dark waves of hair ran down her back and her body was so delicately built, I was sure someone could easily run away with her.

"Because I'm a big girl and I make the rules," she said defiantly, her fists on her hips as she stuck her tiny chest out.

"Renesmee, go inside," I heard a laughing female voice order. Renesmee did so. Taking her place was the most stunningly flawless girl I had ever seen and she looked to be about my age. She looked just like Renesmee: long dark hair, liquid gold eyes, pale skin and rosy cheeks.

"Jacob," she breathed, smiling her brilliantly white teeth at him. I was surprised when Jacob didn't fall to his knees and beg for her to take him back right then and there. Instead, he took his arms from around me and went to go hug her.

"Hey, you," he greeted, shooting her a warm, familiar smile. He embraced her in a bear hug, picking her up and spinning her around, making her laugh. I felt a quick stab of jealousy at this affectionate greeting, but it was replaced with reluctant happiness when I saw the smile on Jacob's face. He looked so pleased and content to be here with her, it felt wrong to be jealous of that. He eventually put her down and she turned to me.

"Jake was right. You are beautiful," was the first thing she said to me, smirking.

"Bella—!" Jake began to yell before he frowned childishly and looked away, his red brown skin becoming even redder. I felt myself flush as well, but knew she couldn't have seen it because of my rich brown skin tone. _He thinks I'm beautiful?_ I thought happily to myself. _Not like I care or anything._

"Hi, I'm Bella," she said, introducing herself and sticking out a dainty, pale hand.

"I'm Calypso," I said, putting my hand in hers. I was surprised I didn't immediately pull it away. The exact opposite of Jacob, her hand was like ice and as hard and smooth as polished marble. It caught me off-guard and I quietly gasped when her skin made contact with mine.

"Wait, like from _The Odyssey_?" she asked, her brow furrowing. I nodded and her face lit up. "There's someone I want you to meet," she said. "But first, let me give you a tour. That girl you just met, that's Renesmee, my little sister." When she said "little sister", I saw her shoot a meaningful look at Jacob as all three of us reached the porch. "My daughter is living with her grandmother in Florida for a while just to get to know her better."

As soon as Bella opened the front door, I noticed that Jacob discreetly started breathing through his mouth. I wondered what he smelled that was so bad, because I thought it smelled terrific. I wasn't sure of everything in the perfume, but I thought it was orange, cherry blossoms and lavender. I would have never pulled off the scent myself, but whoever attempted to did a wonderful job. "You guys, they're here!" Bella shouted, her mellifluous voice echoing around the large, elegant house. Seconds later, I saw a girl with petite, pixie-like features peek her head around the corner, looking just as magnificent as Bella and Renesmee.

She floated gracefully down the stairs before skipping over and hugging me. I smiled and hugged her back. "Hi, I'm Alice," she greeted excitedly. Everything about her, from her spiky black hair to her Prada clad feet, was perky and happy. I absolutely loved it.

"I'm Calypso," I introduced, shaking her hand. It was as cold and hard as Bella's, but I was used to it by now. Alice's large brown eyes became even larger and she smiled, showing off her pearly whites. I wondered if someone in the family was a dentist when one of the most wonderful creatures ever walked into the living room from around a corner.

He too was extremely pale, but had bronze, windswept hair with no roses in his cheeks. However, his eyes were also golden. "Hello," he greeted in a voice that sounded like wind chimes. "I'm Edward," he said, reaching out a hand to shake mine. As I had expected, his hand was freezing and his teeth were perfect. I was beginning to become a little put-off by this. Something felt a little off, almost supernatural. Inhuman…

Suddenly, I felt at ease again as a blond male walked into the living room from the same place Edward had entered. He as well was exceedingly beautiful and I was beginning to feel out of place. Like I wasn't perfect enough to be here or something. "I'm Jasper," the boy said, soon followed by the oldest looking people in the house who still looked to be only in their mid-twenties.

"I'm Carlisle and this is my wife Esme," the stunning man said, gesturing to his equally striking spouse. Sure enough, they were both ice cold with golden eyes. Surprise, surprise…

"There's one more person you have to meet," Alice told me, grabbing my hand and leading me up the stairs, Bella and Jacob following close behind. "He's going to be so excited to see you. He hasn't stopped talking about you since the day he met you. I just hope you're as happy to see him as he will be to see you," she chattered. I wondered whom she could possibly be talking about, considering I had never met any of these people before.

Halfway up the stairs, I noticed a large frame on the wall with what seemed to be about a hundred or so folded caps and gowns inside. Stopping, I pointed to it. "What's that?" I asked Alice curiously. She looked back at Bella and smiled before turning to me.

"Family joke," she smiled and I couldn't help but smile back. "Now come on! I want to see his reaction!" Alice whined, tugging me up the stairs. I laughed at her innocent behavior as she ran down the hall to a door that was filled with signs saying, "DO NOT ENTER" and "No Trespassing" and "BEWARE: VAMPIRE INSIDE." I smiled at one that said "Emmett is not here right now…SO GO AWAY!"

_Emmett…is Emmett a common name…? Maybe so_, I thought, dismissing the possibility that I would be reunited with the first person that had shown me the first act of sincere kindness or consideration in years. My very first friend in this town.

"EMMETT! OPEN UP! THERE'S SOMEONE OUT HERE I WANT YOU TO SEE!" Alice shouted through the door, beaming like crazy. Jacob and Bella had finally caught up and were standing behind Alice and I. I waited in silence, dearly hoping that this wouldn't be a waste of my time.

A few moments later, the door swung open…and sure enough, _my_ Emmett was standing in the doorway. He was wearing a gray t-shirt that threatened to rip against his well-developed chest and biceps and had on a red baseball cap.

"Calypso?" he whispered, squinting his eyes as if he was trying to get a better look at me. Alice, about to burst with happiness, stepped back and smiled at the two of us. I pressed my lips together as I nodded frantically, smiling. "Get over here!" he shouted. I ran over to him and he pulled me into a big bear hug, spinning me around making me squeal and giggle like a child.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded, setting me down, put keeping his hands around my waist and me placing my hands on his chest.

"I could ask you the same question! Jake and I are here to see Bella," I explained, beaming up at him. Emmett looked from my face to Jacob's frowning one. He nodded toward him and Jacob did the same, not as friendly though. Emmett returned his gaze to me, his face welcoming and open again.

"So I guess after I dropped you off, you got somewhere okay?" Emmett asked, pushing a piece of hair behind my ear while scrutinizing my face. I opened my mouth to answer when I heard Jacob do it for me.

"No actually, she didn't. Sam found her half dead in the middle of the woods, with a deep gash in her leg," Jacob said coldly. I turned on him, frowning and slightly shaking my head as if to say, _"Really? Right now?"_

"What?" he breathed, looking appearing to be very concerned. I smiled my most charming smile and shrugged.

"Lara Croft would have done it," was my only answer. He smiled at me, and then threw his head back and laughed.

"Lara Croft is pretty kick ass," Emmett agreed, taking my hand as we all walked back down the stairs, Jacob moping behind with Bella. "We found her!" Emmett exclaimed happily, holding my hand up in the air as we reached the living room once again. Everyone smiled as we walked to one of the couches.

"I knew you'd be happy," Alice giggled as she came to sit next to us.

"Of course you did Alice," Edward laughed, shaking his head as he sat on the arm of the chair Bella was occupying, putting an arm around her shoulders. I saw them exchange a glance and they seemed to be almost as magnificently in love as Emily and Sam. For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I was insanely jealous of Bella Cullen. First, she hit the Daddy Jackpot. Then, she met and married one of the most majestic creatures on this earth, proceeded to conceive what I imagined to be a beautiful and charming child with him and lived with her crazy rich, beautiful family.

Why did she get such a great card in the Game of Life? How did the universe decide who got to grow up happily and spend the rest of their life that way—like Bella—and who got to have a neglectful father, a schizophrenic mother and a drug addicted brother—like me? How was that even fair? I mean sure, I understood that plenty of people had lives much worse than me, but that didn't make coming home to a stoned brother, negligent father and no mother hurt any less.

"Hey, where's the pretty blond?" Jake asked from next to me. He wasn't sitting on the couch. He was standing, his hands in his pockets, looking rather uncomfortable and out of place. I thoroughly hoped he hadn't regretted coming here. I would feel really guilty if he did, being the one that had convinced him to come and all. The family exchanged meaningful glances, all avoiding Emmett's eyes, who was staring at the ground.

"She left," he said simply. I could hear the pain that he had tried to hide in his voice, and I couldn't help but feel my stomach give a slight lurch for sympathy for him.

"Oh," Jacob said, now even more uncomfortable than he was moments ago. "I-I'm sorry," he mumbled. Emmett shrugged.

"We just didn't work out I guess. A relationship can't survive on sex alone!" he chirped jokingly. I laughed and he smiled his brilliant smile at me making my heart skip a beat every now and again.

"Who's up for a game of Charades?" Edward suggested lightly, forcing me to pry my eyes from Emmett's golden ones. I noticed Jacob fuming over in the corner and he seemed to be trembling slightly. I stood up quickly.

"Me!" I agreed, skipping over to Edward's side and linking his cold arm in mine.

"Let's play outside!" Alice piped, seeming to float out into the cloudy afternoon.

"It's cold out there," I whined, taking my arm from Edward's and walking over to the door.

"I'm not," Jacob said. "Here," he murmured, wrapping his warm, strong arms around me, sending a storm of butterflies to flutter around my stomach. We stepped outside, the rest of the family not far behind.

"Who wants to go first?" Bella asked as we all started into the dark, green forest.


	10. Yellow

_"The real lover is the man who can thrill you by kissing your forehead or smiling into your eyes or just staring into space."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

I was sitting in the lunchroom with Jake and all his friends, poking at my half cold mashed potatoes and gravy. The gravy was more gray than brown. I looked up across the lunchroom and saw Kyle with his group of friends. He was laughing about something and I watched in wonderment as he ran his hand through his longish, silky black hair and adorably pushed his black glasses up onto his nose. I studied the way his discreet biceps flexed as he leaned forward on his arms to say something else, making the rest of his table erupt in laughter. He looked over toward me and I quietly gasped as our eyes collided. Even from across the lunchroom, I felt my heart stop as it usually did when my eyes met his purple ones.

His body seemed to be responding in the same way as his smile slowly fell off his face. Then, even slower, a dreamy smile appeared in its place. "Hi," he mouthed. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself as my smile mimicked his.

"Hi," I mouthed back once my eyes had reopened. I saw his back arch as he laughed quietly, looking down at his table. He then looked back up at me with such intensity, I knew that if I hadn't been sitting down, I would have fallen. We stared at each other blissfully for a few more moments before I heard Paul saying my name next to me.

"Calypso," he said. I didn't answer. "Calypso," he said a bit firmer this time.

"What?" I muttered, so quietly I could hardly hear myself, my eyes still pasted on Kyle's.

"Calypso!" he shouted.

"What—WHAT?" I said, slowly coming out of my reverie. I whipped my head around to glare at Paul. I huffed and put my head in my hand. "What?" I breathed quietly. All the boys smirked except Jacob, and slowly turned their heads towards Kyle's table, their eyes looking last.

"_Ohhhh_," Jared breathed in recognition. All the boys looked back at me. "You were eye-humping with Kyle Wakefield. I get it," he teased. I shook my head at him, unable to keep a slight smirk off my face as I dropped my fork onto my tray.

"I'm not hungry," I said, pushing my chair back and grabbing my tray as I stood up. I began to walk out of the lunchroom and heard just the sound I was expecting to hear: the sound of another chair scraping across the floor. I glanced back inconspicuously and saw Kyle walking about five yards behind me towards the doors. I walked out and leaned my back against the wall next to the doors, crossing my ankles, my arms, and arching my neck looking only at the ground. I soon heard the lunchroom doors open. When I knew I had Kyle's full attention, I looked up at him with just my eyes.

"Do I look sexy?" I asked him with a smile, still maintaining my position. He nodded his head as he scanned me up and down.

"Very," he assured me with a smile that made my heart pound. I grinned and stood up. As we began walking, Kyle put his hand out to hold mine and, involuntarily, I put mine in his. It was big and nice to hold…but it felt weird. I was so used to holding Jake's hand now, that because Kyle's hand wasn't twice as big as mine, hot and calloused, it felt foreign. Wrong, even. It was as if my hand only belonged in Jacob's…

I shook my head lightly to dismiss this thought and turned to look at Kyle. "Whaddya wanna do?" I asked him. He looked toward the doors of the school, and back at me, a mischievous smile on his face and a devious gleam in his eye. He looked around the school and began walking a little faster. "Kyle, what are you doing?" I asked, though I knew perfectly well what we were doing.

"C'mon," he said, smiling and frequently switching between walking and jogging. I just giggled as we jogged towards the door and then bolted full out once we were a few yards away. We laughed while we ran to his motorcycle parked around the side of the school. We both straddled it and I wrapped my arms around him, greatly enjoying our closeness as we ripped out of the parking lot, my hair flying behind me in the wind.

* * *

><p>"Your favorite color is…?" Kyle started, looking at me with one eyebrow raised as I looked at him, my mouth open and eyebrows raised. He had sworn up and down that he knew practically everything about me besides intimate details and now I was quizzing him. I stood on my tiptoes, slowly getting my face closer and closer to his. Just when my face was a few inches from his, I closed my eyes and softly smiled.<p>

"Yellow," I mouthed, reopening my eyes.

"Aw! Why didn't I say that?" he groaned as I smirked and we began walking to his motorcycle again. Kyle and I had spent the remainder of the school day at the local arcade, eating and playing games. During miniature golf, he inevitably showed me how to hit a hole in one by wrapping his warm arms around me. It felt a bit uncomfortable actually. His arms weren't quite long enough to fit around me perfectly and with the way his muscles curved, they kind of pressed against my shoulders instead of fitting into them the way Jacob's did.

As we got onto the Harley and started back to the school, I thought of how he didn't even remember my favorite color. That was one of my distinguishing factors. At least that's what I thought. And the symbolism of it gave me just as much hope as the song _Smile_did. I had never met anyone else whose favorite color was yellow and only yellow, and Kyle couldn't even remember it. I dwelled on this for the ten-minute ride until we got to the school. "Did you have fun?" he asked as he helped me off the bike.

"Yeah," I said. And it wasn't a lie. I did have fun. A lot of fun actually. My knees nearly buckled a total of seven times (I counted) and I felt like I was floating on Cloud Nine the whole time…but even with all that, I didn't have nearly as much fun as I do with Jacob I realized. "Thanks for taking me," I said, grabbing his hand. I wanted desperately for an electric jolt to go through my arm and tickle my body similar to what happened when Jacob held my hand, but I just felt a sizzle. The sizzle lingered for quite a while, but eventually dwindled and died as we proceeded through the halls.

I saw Jacob's figure leaning against my locker and I looked over at Kyle. "I'm in trouble!" I sing-songed jokingly, making Kyle shake his head and laugh.

"You want me to come with you?" he asked. I grinned at his chivalry.

"No. Jacob's just a big teddy bear. I'll see you later," I said. Kyle nodded and began walking away, but suddenly turned around and walked back to me. He kissed me gently on the cheek before straightening up again. I smiled softly, resisting the urge to touch my cheek where he kissed it.

"Bye," he said, his cheeks slightly pinker. He left, looking back every now and again at me and mussing up the back of his hair, his crooked smile making my heart skip. Once he had turned the corner, I began making my way through the crowd in the hallway.

"You're on my locker," I stated, plainly but seriously. Jacob just looked at me.

"You skipped the last three periods," he said in the same tone.

"Well. You're quite the observant one aren't you?" I said sarcastically. I then pushed my way past him to my locker. I put in my combination as Jake watched me. Even though his gaze wasn't exactly loving, I still felt my heart beginning to pound under his intense scrutiny.

"That's not exactly something you'd want Sam and Emily to hear, is it?" he asked. I slammed my locker door shut at these words and spun around to face him.

"You wouldn't," I said, calling his bluff. At least I thought I was calling his bluff. I narrowed my chocolate brown eyes at him.

"Wanna bet?" he threatened, cocking a dark eyebrow at me. We stared each other down for a few moments, challenging the other to soften up and apologize, which neither of us did.

"Hey, lovers!" we heard a familiar voice shout from down the hall. We looked to our right and saw Jared strutting jauntily down the hall towards us. I put on a slight smile and walked toward him. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and I put mine around his waist as we kept walking towards Jacob. Without stopping, Jacob fell into step next to us so that we were all headed to the front doors.

"I'm getting a ride with you two 'cause my car broke down on the way to school this morning," he announced as he pushed open the doors. He switched his hold on me for just my hand which I didn't mind considering that I had already begun sweating because of his overheated body pressed against mine. "So did you have fun today?" Jared asked me with a squeeze of the hand and a wink. I smirked and leaned against him as we approached Jacob's red truck.

"It was pretty fun. We escaped on his motorcycle to the arcade and played mini golf and Pacman and stuff. He was sweet," I said as he opened my door. I slid into the passenger seat next to Jacob and Jared got into the backseat.

"Well you know Jacob and I aren't gonna let you get away with this again, so don't try," he warned playfully as Jacob pulled out of the parking lot and started toward Sam and Emily's house.

"Who said we were gonna let her get away with it the first time?" he grumbled. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window grumpily.

"C'mon, Jake—" Jared started, beginning to vouch for me, but Jacob cut him off with a question instead.

"Did you guys plan that little—that little—stunt today?" he spat, griping the steering wheel with more force than he needed.

"No, Jacob. It was spontaneous," I said. "_He's_spontaneous," I cooed dreamily as if it was the most romantic thing in the world, knowing it would thoroughly irritate Jacob. He pouted, sticking his bottom lip out just a bit. I smirked internally at this knee jerk childish reaction.

"Spontaneous," he muttered. "I'll give you spontaneous—" And with that, he swerved abruptly into the next lane with traffic zooming the opposite way we were going. I screamed and clutched onto my door and the dashboard while Jared and Jacob laughed. He weaved by honking cars going the other way right before they crashed into us. I was sure we were gonna die when we were speeding head on toward a large blue semi truck. Positive that the last thing I heard would be the deafening honk of the truck and blood rushing through my ears due to my pounding heart, Jacob dived out of the way just before we hit the truck. We were so close, that the grinding metal of the bumpers caused sparks to fly as he pulled up to the side of the road.

Jacob and Jared had goofy grins on their faces while I was breathing like I had just run a marathon, one hand on my door handle, one clutching the side of my seat and one of my feet braced against the dashboard. I looked over to Jacob, my chest still heaving from panting…and I began laughing. He also began laughing, the corners of his dark brown eyes crinkling, which made me laugh even harder. Jared was laughing in the back, but we weren't really minding him. I threw a hand out to hit Jacob in the chest, but he grabbed my wrist and yanked me over onto him, causing me to yelp, which dissolved into laughter as I landed on his firm chest.

We kept laughing and he began tickling me causing me to spasm on top of him, which made him laugh in return. "Jacob, leggo!" I shrieked, trying to push his big, calloused hands away from my middle. He didn't listen to my desperate pleas and, frankly, I didn't want him to. I would've stayed in his arms forever, laughing with him if Jared hadn't shouted, "Hey! I wanna get Calypso home so that you can fix my car, dammit!" Still smiling, I climbed over to my seat and Jacob began driving home once again. We turned on the radio and we all listened in content silence, Jake and I discreetly sending each other silly looks.

Before I knew it, we had pulled into the driveway at the side of the little blue house. "I'll see you in a minute," Jake said. "I'm gonna be back for dinner. Surprise, surprise," he informed me as he unlocked my door. I nodded and got of the car. Jared started to get out of the car as well. "Where are you going?" Jacob asked curiously as Jared started walking to the house.

"I gotta talk to Calypso," Jared answered. He sent Jacob a look and after they had made eye contact for a few seconds, Jacob nodded and sat back in his seat.

"I'll see you later," Jake said, about to start home.

"Hey, wait!" I shouted, clutching onto the passenger side door handle just before the car started moving. He looked up at me eagerly. _This is stupid. Why are you asking him this? Why does it even matter?_the little voice in my head was saying. "What's my favorite color?" I asked him breathlessly. I didn't know why this meant so much to me. It was a stupid thing to obsess over, but for some reason, I needed to know if he knew it. His face broke out into a smile.

"Yellow," he answered simply. I let go of his car and watched as he backed out of the driveway and started home. A whisper of a smile lingered on my face as I skipped merrily the drive through the door, which Jared was holding open for me.

"I'm home!" I shouted, dropping my backpack on the kitchen floor with a childish smile on my face. Every time I did that, a rush of warmth seemed to flood my body and give me goosebumps. I would never do that back in Brooklyn because I never had the urge to draw attention to myself there. I just kind of blended in and kept quiet. There was no need to announce my presence because I didn't want to be noticed. I would watch with envy as teenagers in movies would do it, a look of disgust on their faces when their mom or dad came prancing happily into the kitchen to ask how their day was. Didn't they understand that that was a privilege? Something kids like me wished they could have? Parents who gave a damn about how your day went and who practically flew into the room to greet you?

I smiled even wider when Sam came down the stairs, beaming. "There's my girl," he said in his deep, husky voice as he swept me up into a bear hug, making me giggle like a child.

"Hi, honey," Emily greeted as she came over and pecked me on the cheek. I smiled at my family, feeling happier than I could ever remember I had been back in Brooklyn during the years without my mom. "Hey, Jared," Emily said brightly, noticing Jared.

"Hi, Emily," he said, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek. He and Sam just nodded at each other.

"Do you want something to eat?" she asked, already moving to the cupboards most likely to make some kind of snack. She was so willing to give and take care of people all the time. That was one of the things I had loved most about her.

"Nah, I won't be here long. I just wanted to stop in for a sec," he informed her. With that, he grabbed my hand and dragged me into the living room. "Sit," he ordered simply. I raised my eyebrows at him and sat down on the couch. He pulled up a chair a few inches away from where I was sitting and straddled it backwards, leaning his arms on the back, all without taking his narrowed eyes off of me. We stared at each other like this for a while; my gaze smug and buoyant while his was suspicious and concentrated.

"You're crushing on Jacob," he said in a low voice without changing his expression. My face immediately became defensive.

"No I'm not!" I shrieked, shooting out of my seat to glare down at him. He now became the relaxed and amused one.

"It's really obvious. And you're crushing big time," he continued, very pleased with himself. I rolled my eyes and sat back down.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I spat.

"You do too. You're just in denial. I know you are, I can see it in your eyes," he insisted.

"You're delusional. Y'know that?" I asked him venomously. Leaning forward, he narrowed his eyes and scrutinized my face.

"Look me in my eyes and tell me you are not falling head over heels for Jacob Black," he ordered levelly.

Mustering up all my lying power and acting talent that I could, I stared Jared in the eyes and said, "I am not falling head over heels for Jacob Black." We stared at each other for a little bit more, but the thought of Jacob and our tickle fight and the way he so effortlessly and surely recited my favorite color as if the answer had been waiting on his tongue made me want to smile. Something on my face must have reflected this, because Jared's face became ecstatic as he stood up and pointed at me.

"Aha! You dirty little liar! You are too! I saw it! In your face! I saw it!" he shouted, hopping up and down while still pointing at me. I groaned and fell back into the couch covering my face. I didn't even know I had a crush on Jacob until just now. But now that I thought about it, that seemed to be the only explanation for the way my stomach did back flips whenever I heard his name. Or how my whole body tingled whenever he simply brushed a hair off my forehead. Or how my heart began to race whenever he smiled at me…the list was infinite.

Peeking through the cracks in my fingers, I looked at Jared's triumphant grin. "Promise you won't tell anyone?" I squeaked. He shook his head, grinning like a child who knew something he shouldn't. I chucked a pillow at his head with all my might, which he smoothly dodged while laughing. He came and sat next to me, letting me lean my head against his chest and curl up into a ball as he wrapped his warms arms around me.

"He likes you too. A lot," he said softly. I looked up at him, my eyes alight with an innocent glow.

"Really?" I asked wondrously. Jared chuckled at my naive tone and nodded. I smiled to myself and lay my head back on his chest. We ended up putting the movie _The Hangover_ in and laughing our asses off. Emily, knowing Jared all too well, brought in a hot plate of cookies and two tall glasses of milk that we ate half of before Sam came in and stole them. The night continued on as it normally did with all the boys arriving later, eating food and all heading home after I had gone to bed.

I fell asleep dreaming of Jacob.


	11. Sheila Franklin, I DON'T Believe In Love

_"A wise girl kisses but doesn't love, listens but doesn't believe, and leaves before she is left." -Marilyn Monroe_

"Hey there, sexy," I heard a familiar voice murmur next to my ear as a pair of brown, warm arms wrapped around my waist. I smirked and closed my locker. Turning around, I wrapped my arms around Seth's neck as he let his interlocked hands settle at the base of my back.

"Seth, shouldn't you be hitting on girls your own age?" I asked him, tapping him lightly on the nose.

"I'm not hitting on you!" he exclaimed, blushing ever so slightly. I laughed and placed an arm around his waist and he did the same as we began walking down the hall. "But I look older than you anyways. So…" He began to slowly slide his hand toward my bottom.

"Seth, stop," I giggled, taking his hand off my back. He chuckled as we turned a corner.

"So did you see the new girl?" he asked.

"Um, no. I didn't know there was a new girl," I admitted.

"Her name's Konstantina Katsaros and she's the niece of Lenny Katsaros," he informed me.

"The one who owns the retro diner on the water?" I clarified. He nodded.

"The same."

"She hot?" I questioned.

"So I hear," he confessed. And sure enough, when we rounded the corner, I saw a beautiful, unfamiliar face beaming up at…

Jacob?

I felt my heart plunge into my stomach as the tan girl tossed her silky, chocolate curls over her slender shoulder, smiling up at Jacob under her long, brown eyelashes.

"Hey. Hey! Calypso! Calyypsoooo!" Seth shouted, waving his hand in front of my face as I stared at the scene before me, seething with jealousy.

"What, Seth?" I said, snappier than I expected, grabbing his hand out of my face.  
>"Just go over there. He'll immediately start talking to you, I promise," Seth vowed. I began shaking my head and sticking out my bottom lip as he nudged me toward Jacob and the girl. "YEEHAW!" he exclaimed, smacking me on my bottom...hard.<p>

"OUCH!" I growled, rubbing my bottom. I reluctantly walked toward the two smiling people while glaring at Seth over my shoulder.

"Hey, you!" Jacob greeted, walking over to me. He pulled me into a hug, which I didn't bother to return.

"Um. Hi," I replied unenthusiastically. He pulled away and he wrapped his arms around my waist while I kept my tense arms down at my sides as the girl watched us with her large, grey doe eyes. "Weren't you, ah, going to talk to Mr. Burns about your math homework?" I inquired, trying to keep the jealousy out of my voice.

"I did. He said I got everything wrong." I couldn't help but laugh and put my arms around his neck. That gesture may or may not have been somewhat territorial.

"Well that's a surprise. You're not _that_stupid," I joked.

"I can't study with you in the room! I got distracted," he murmured into my hair as I laughed into his broad chest. "C'mon. There's someone I want you to meet," he said, taking my hand and dragging me toward the modelesque girl leaning against one of the green lockers. "Konstantina, this is Calypso Kinnear. Calypso, this is Konstantina Katsaros," he introduced, gesturing to each one of us.

"Hi," we greeted in unison. My eagerness was phony, but she didn't know it.

"So you're new here?" I asked her, trying to sound honestly interested.

"Yeah. My older brother and I just moved here to live with our uncle," she confided, smiling.

"Cool! So you have siblings?" I asked, still uninterested, but pretending to be.

"Yeah. But I like to announce the fact that we are not related. He's adopted. And an ass. I love him! But he's an ass," she joked, making me laugh. And surprisingly, it was genuine!

"Got it. Not related to your adopted brother. And just for the record, I'm not related to this thing either," I told her, kicking Jacob in the ass after crossing my arms. He hip checked me and I giggled. "Stupid," I muttered under our laughter as I playfully swatted at him and returned to where I was standing before he nearly knocked me over.

"Well, I would hope not considering you two are together and everything," she said. Jacob and I looked at each other and then back at her.

"Ah—uh, Jake and I aren't—we aren't like that—"

"We're just friends," he assured her, shooting me a wary look before returning his full attention to Konstantina who was blushing under her sandy colored skin.

"Oh. I just thought…'cause you two are so close…and the way you guys interact…" she was obviously embarrassed. I shook my head.

"Nah, Jake's like my brother. He annoys the shit—" I stopped momentarily to kick Jacob in the shin for abruptly shoving me off to the side. "Out of me," I continued as if Jake wasn't wincing in pain at his bruised shin. "But I'd die for him," I confessed breathlessly, looking at Jacob in his twinkling brown eyes. And as I gazed at him, I realized this might have been the most impromptu-but-genuine-heartfelt comment I had ever given. I would give my life to save Jake's. I would jump in front of a bullet or sell my soul to ensure his safety. And as he pierced right through me with those sparkling brown eyes of his, I realized that he was thinking the exact same thing, leaving me feeling as if I had just been shocked with four hundred volts of electricity.

"Sweet," she cooed, calling our attention back to her chocolate brown eyes, which were framed by long, thick brown eyelashes and complimented by the scatter of dark brown freckles across her nose and cheeks. During the awkward silence, I let my eyes wander when they noticed her beige shoulder bag which was covered in buttons that surrounded a green dog…

"Omigod, is that Gir?" I asked excitedly, pointing to her bag where a green "dog" with a pink tongue sticking out and cuddling a rubber pink piggy was depicted. She glanced down at her bag and looked back up at me, beaming.

"Yeah! I love the little guy! He's adorable," she confessed,

"I'M NEKKED!" we both shouted in unison with our Gir voices, making the other laugh.

"I didn't know anyone else here would watch Invader Zim. Hardly anyone knows about it," she admitted, adjusting her bag.

"Oh, I only watch it for Gir. I saw the first episode and I wasn't sure about the show until Gir sung 'The Doom Song.' Then I was hooked," I disclosed. "The Doom Song" was the song Gir sang during his and Zim's six-month trip to earth. In this song, Gir basically sang the word "doom" in a happy tune over and over again, bobbing his head and wiggling his body in his seat the whole time.

"I totally agree. Gir is like, the heart of that show. Well, I mean, he and Dib," Konstantina concurred. I pouted, shook my head and stuck out my tongue in disgust. Both Jacob and Konstantina laughed at my expression.

"Dib? God, I hate Dib. He's so…so…" I searched my mind, trying to locate the right word for this cartoon character when Konstantina provided one.

"Annoyingly persistent?" she contributed, shrugging and shooting me an award-winning smile. I looked at the ceiling for a moment and shrugged; as if I was contemplating whether those were the words I was looking for.

"Meh. I was thinking more along the lines of 'a pathetic failure'…but points for adorkablity!" I compromised, all of us laughing. "Hey, what's your first class?" I asked her, beginning to greatly enjoy her company. I started coming to terms with the fact that maybe this girl wasn't that bad, which I was happy about. I needed to find a good girlfriend in this school. I mean, don't get me wrong—I love my boys—but I needed a girl to hang with or I was afraid the guys' testosterone would rub off on me and I'd soon be growing a beard. I mean, don't get me wrong, beards are cool and all, but I don't think they go well with boobs.

She rummaged in her bag for her schedule, which she soon produced and handed over to me. With each second that I looked at the black ink, my smile grew wider and wider. "NO WAY!" I exclaimed, thoroughly pumped at this point.

"What?" she asked me, amused at my enthusiasm.

"You have every single one of my classes," I informed her. Her face broke out into a huge grin as she looked at the schedule with me.

"No way! Seriously?" she asked, not able to believe she was hitting it off so well on her first day. I nodded my head vigorously, way too happy to be sharing every single second of every day for the rest of the school year with this girl. We both shrieked and jumped up and down while holding hands, which I hadn't done in a while.

Actually…

Come to think of it, I had never done that. I had never really had the urge to do it. When my mom still lived with us back in Brooklyn and she and I were excited, she'd just tickle me breathless. I never really had any good friends back there either, after my mom had had her "accident." So I guess this happy jumping fest was a first of hopefully many to come. My heart swelled as I realized that I might have been making my first true "BFF."

Jacob cleared his throat and both of us stopped and looked at him. "Well. If I'm no longer needed here, then I'll just be going," he announced, pretending to be offended.

"Jake, don't be silly," I commanded, grabbing his hand before he could walk away before slinging it over my shoulder. "Walk us to our first class," I demanded putting my arm around his waist.

"Gladly," he conceded. With a kiss on my forehead that tickled my tummy, we were off.

* * *

><p>"What's your favorite song from Hair?" I asked Konstantina, pointing to the red, green and yellow button on her bag. We were all sitting at our usual table in the lunchroom—"we" including all my guys, Konstantina and I eating our weird tasting tomato soup.<p>

"Hmmm," she hummed, tapping her chin and looking up at the ceiling with her dark eyebrows furrowed. "'I Believe in Love,'" she confessed. I pouted, shook my head and stuck out my tongue.

"Is that like, your signature 'no' look?" Jacob asked from across the table. I shrugged and returned my face to its normal expression: attentive and buoyant.

"You really don't like that song? Why not?" she asked me. I shrugged and tried to keep my face blank as I pushed my carrots around on my white paper tray.

"It's just that…it's the complete opposite of what I go by," I explained briefly and dryly.

"What do you mean? You like, don't believe in love?" Jared chuckled from across the table. I picked my eyes up from my vegetables to look him in the eye with a hopefully nonchalant expression.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I mumbled. Everyone looked around at the table as if this were the most shocking news they had ever heard.

"Wait…what do you mean you _'don't believe in love'_," Paul asked with air quotes.

"I dunno. I mean…" I sighed grasping for what I was trying to say while attempting to ignore the strange look Jacob was giving me. "Love has never really done anything for me. It's certainly hasn't protected me from getting hurt. I don't think I've ever experienced it either. Not romantically at least," I clarified so that they didn't think that I was just a heartless monster.

"So are you trying to tell us you're like, asexual or something?" Quil asked, his mouth full of food. I shook my head quickly, my brown eyes wide.

"Oh, God no! No, I get crushes on people, I just…I've never met anyone who I think I'll ever fall in love with. Like, I've never had the desire to spend the rest of my life with any one person." I explained. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Jacob's face fall as if he had just watched his puppy get run over by a truck.

"So you think you're doomed to an eternity of crushing on a guy, but never falling in love? You don't think you'll fall in love even a little bit?" Embry asked, leaning forward with his chin in his hands.

I blew a huff of air from my bottom lip making a lazy strand of hair on my forehead flutter up and on top of my head. "Well I mean, I don't believe in falling in love 'a little bit.' There aren't stages of true love. You're either in love or you aren't. It's all or nothing for me," I concluded, sitting back in my chair and pulling my soft hair back into a loose ponytail that sat at the nape of my neck.

"Uh-huh, I see. And what is your definition of love, Calypso?" Seth asked. I sighed yet again. I was sure that by the end of this conversation, I would have used up my "sigh supply" and never be able to sigh again in my whole entire life.

And that would royally suck.

"Are we really talking about this in a high school cafeteria at lunchtime?" I asked, hoping to draw attention to the absurdity of this conversation. Everyone was staring at me with enrapt expressions. Again, I sighed. "If I were to fall in love…I would get butterflies when he looked at me. I would feel electrified when he did something as simple as brushing a piece of hair off my forehead. Whenever he said my name, I would get lightheaded…" I realized that what I was saying sounded extremely familiar to me. As if I had said it before. Jared was smirking beside me.

"That's funny. That's exactly what you said yesterday when we were talking about your crush," he teased. I tensed up and my eyes got as wide as dinner plates. All of a sudden, I remembered. I had explained to Jared why I had a major crush on Jacob while we were watching our movie. These were the feelings I had explained to Jared concerning Jacob.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said through my teeth as I turned to look at him.

"Well you remember, don't you?" he asked enthusiastically, grinning wide now. "Yeah, you were talking about your unhealthy crush on—"  
>Before he could even start saying the name, I plopped his bowl of tomato soup on his head upside down. The warm, red liquid was streaming down his face and in his eyes and ears while the white bowl sat atop his head like a hat. Everyone at our table and soon the lunchroom began laughing their butts off while I just stared at him with my hands folded, a smug smile on my face.<p>

"You've, uh, got a little summin'-summin' right here," I joked, rubbing at the corner of my mouth with my middle finger. He just glared at me past the drops of soup dribbling off his eyelashes. I winked at him, grabbed Konstantina's hand and skipped out of the lunchroom with her.

"Hey, um, I have a request," she started as we turned the corner to the library.

"Hmmm?" I hummed, urging her to continue.

"My uncle told me that if I wanted to bring a friend over after school, it'd be cool and I was wondering, since we seem to be getting along so well, maybe you would like to come over and—" I smiled at her as she rambled on.

"I would love to come over," I assured her, squeezing her hand gently. She grinned.

"Oh! Great! Well, my pervy older brother will be driving us to the house and he'll drive you home too," she informed me. I laughed.

"Cool," I agreed.

"And be aware that he will flirt. He won't bite, but—well," she trailed off, looking at the sky as if for the answer. "Depends on how much he's flirting with you. But I wouldn't count on it." I laughed as we proceeded into the library.

* * *

><p>It was finally the end of school and Konstatina and I were walking outside. "So, Nate's car is the inconspicuous, totally not flashy car," she said, her voice drowning in sarcasm. So I then looked for the most conspicuous, flashy car in the lot, which wasn't hard to find considering that half the student body was crowded around it.<p>

"Ah. That one," I said, looking at the gleaming cherry red Porsche convertible which was being heavily scrutinized by a bunch of guys and a few girls. The rest of the females were crowded around not the car, but its owner, a very hipster-ish guy in a leather jacket and gray skinny jeans. Konstantina looked at me and rolled her eyes before we started walking to the car. Of course, the girl closest to the guy was none other than Jennifer Keelan.

I felt a surge of anger rush through me and heat my core as I remembered the day when she stole Jake away from me like the succubus she is. With just a flip of her long, platinum blond hair, she got Jacob to pry his warm, desired fingers from mine so that he could go rub them all over her toned, tan back.

"…and I can put both my legs behind my head easily," she bragged seductively, pressing herself against the boy—no, man. Not boy.

"Oh really? I'll have to see that someday, love," he flirted in a slight, but recognizable British accent.

"You absolutely will," she flirted back, pushing her long, slender fingers through his long, brown hair and shooting him a bright smile.

"Don't press too hard against the poor boy now. Your boobs might pop," I warned snappishly from the other side of the car, the heat of my anger towards her still lingering. Jennifer glared at me over the guy's leather clad shoulder and the quote, "If looks could kill" came to mind. However, the guy untangled himself from Jennifer's arms to beam at me.

"And now just who would you be, spunk?" he asked me in the same accent, a lazy smile decorating his rugged features. Jennifer smirked smugly at me over his shoulder, assuming that he was insulting me and standing up for her.

"Excuse me?" I pardoned, not entirely sure whether Jennifer was right or not.

"He thinks you're hot," Konstantina said, staring at her brother with a disgusted look on her face. He smirked and winked at her. Rolling her eyes, she took in a deep breath and bellowed at the top of her lungs, "All right, kiddos, CLEAR OUT!" This was effective considering that all of the students walked away from the car and back to their own. Jennifer lingered for a moment to give the guy her phone number before winking at him and walking to her car.

Konstantina introduced us as the boy walked around the car, eyeing me all the while like his prey. "Nate, this is Calypso. Calypso, this is—"

"Nate Katsaros," he said himself, interrupting her and grabbing my hand. I stared at him with a challenging face as he lifted my hand up to his lips and gently kissed it, all the while staring at me with his deep brown eyes.

"Did you not get the message, sweetie? Chivalry is dead," I informed him harshly. His crooked smirk stayed on his face anyhow as he scanned me up and down with his eyes. They were so powerful, I could almost feel my shirt beginning to slide over my head. Konstantina chuckled, rolled her eyes and climbed into the front seat.

"She probably told you I wouldn't bite," he muttered after staring at me with his piercing eyes trying to get me to soften up. I didn't answer, but kept my face a blank slate, as I looked him in the eye. He slowly lifted my hand up to his mouth and softly bit down on the knuckle. An uninvited and much unappreciated shudder went through my body and gave me goosebumps.

He smirked at me, obviously noticing my small intake of breath, although my face stayed the same for the most part. Satisfied, he brought my hand down from his warm, soft mouth and stroked it with his thumb as he leaned forward to put his mouth next to my ear. "She lied," he whispered, his warm breath on my skin making me involuntarily shudder ever so slightly. He then let go of my hand, walked to the driver's seat, and slid in. I huffed and got into the car, not sure if I was more annoyed with his blatant and inappropriate flirting or with the fact that his blatant and inappropriate flirting made me want him, and want him bad.

* * *

><p>"We're here," Nate announced, pulling into the driveway and turning down the music so that we could hear each other. I looked out the tinted window and sure enough, the familiar little blue house was standing at the end of the driveway. The whole ride from the edge of town, here—about a twenty minute drive—we listened to the radio and sang songs like "Check Yes, Juliet" by We the Kings and "I Write Sins, Not Tragedies" by Panic at the Disco at the top of our lungs. We had really hit it off when I was hanging out with Konstatina for dinner over at her house. He had flirted with me to the point where I could no longer ignore him and had to taunt back. It started out as mild case of teasing and had slowly progressed into a severe case of shameless flirting.<p>

He leaned over my lap to look out my window and I caught a whiff of his scent which was a mixture of musk and cinnamon. "Mmmm, that house is a little too far away from my taste. I should walk you in," he offered in his sultry British voice, sitting up in his chair and smiling his crooked smile at me, causing my heart to skip a beat.

"You're right. You never know when a crazy serial killer could attack," I agreed, making him laugh. He got out of the car and opened my door for me.

"After you m'lady," he said, bowing and waving a hand toward the house while holding my door open for me.

"Why thank you ever so much kind sir," I said in a fake British accent.

"Were you trying to sound British just then? 'Cause you didn't. You sounded Austrailian," he informed me with his hands in his pockets as we walked down to the house.

"No, I was trying to sound Austrailian," I lied, nudging my shoulder against his which he soon did to me. "Besides, Australian guys are sexier anyway," I added, covertly cutting my eyes at him. He raised his eyebrows at me.

"Oh yeah?" he challenged. I looked straight ahead and nodded, smirking the whole time. He stepped in front of me, causing me to stop, and placed his hands on my shoulders and sniffed my neck deeply and over exaggeratedly. Even though it was only a joke, I shuddered at the thought of his lips being there, but quickly shook the thought out of my head. He straightened up, but kept his hands on my shoulders.

"Was you sniffing me supposed to be sexy?" I asked him with a quizzical expression. He leaned forward so that his nose was only a couple of inches from mine. I raised my eyebrows and made it come off like I wasn't interested, but I was desperately yearning to close the gap between our mouths and fervently kiss him.

"You liked it," he joked, staring at my lips, but still grinning. I noticed that his face was slowly and steadily moving ever so close to mine. I couldn't help but gaze at his full, smooth mouth and wonder what it would be like to have his lips on mine.

"Oh, did I?" I taunted, still keeping up my façade.

"You did," he chuckled, nodding while still moving his lips closer and closer to mine. I rolled my eyes and pushed him away from me last second and began walking down to my door. I heard him lightly laugh behind me before walking me the rest of the way to the door in silence. We arrived at the door and stood across from each other, both staring at it.

"Well I guess I should go inside now," I said, looking at him. He looked over at me as well and pushed his fingers through his hair.

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess you should," he breathed. We stared at each other for a while and for about the hundredth time tonight, I wanted with all my being to passionately kiss Nate Katsaros on his full, inviting lips.

"Well, this was fun. We should…do it again sometime," I said lamely, placing my hand on the doorknob. I began opening the door before Nate grabbed the doorknob and closed it once again.

"Or! Or," he laughed, stepping in front of me so that I couldn't go in. He leaned his back against the door frame and crossed his ankles and his arms as he looked over his shoulder at me. "Crazy idea here—wacky even," he started, throwing his hands up in the air before returning his burning gaze to mine. "But we could go on an actual date," he said as if it were the most original idea ever invented. I decided to play along, so I widened my eyes, gasped and put a hand to my face.

"Intriguing! Please, continue," I requested with bright, curious eyes. He laughed and shook his head.

"You're cute," he interjected before going on with his brilliant proposition. "I dunno, I was thinking…I'd pick you up in my awesome car. I'd get you a rose…wear a shirt that matches your eyes…" he added sexily, making my breathing hitch as I watched his flawless face carefully. He continued on with his proposal. "We'd dance, laugh, eat, burp, kiss…do more if you like," he added. I playfully punched him in the shoulder making him chuckle. "Then I'd take you home, and the night would come to a close all too soon," he finished. I nodded, now interested.  
>"And just when do you plan to take me on this magnificent—as you call it—date?" I asked him. He smiled and stood up straight, facing me.<p>

"Um…I dunno. I was thinking tomorrow?" he admitted scratching the back of his head and furrowing his brow.

"Well, _somebody_sure is eager to go out with me," I teased. He smiled and stepped a bit closer to me.

"You're right. I really want to know when I'm gonna see you again. In fact I'm using all my will power not to take you somewhere private and…" He reached a hand out to push a lock of hair behind my ear and move his hand to my neck. "Have my way with you…" he finished, his eyes searching mine for some kind of signal to go for it, but he never did. My heart was slamming against my ribcage and I was afraid it was going to burst out and land on Nate's face which would not only be fatal, but embarrassing.

"What time tomorrow?" I asked, hooking my fingers through his belt loops and pulling him closer to me. I had no idea what was giving me so much courage, but I felt confident as I lightly pressed my body against his while he stroked my face.

"Hm?" he breathed as he pressed his forehead against mine with his eyes closed.

"When are you picking me up for our date tomorrow?" I asked him. His brow furrowed a little bit more.

"Tomorrow's Friday?" he questioned. I nodded as I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around his waist, breathing in his aroma. "Six. I'll pick you up at six," he replied, swallowing. I felt him press his lips against my forehead. They lingered there for quite some time before he pulled away. "G'night, love," he whispered smoothly.

And before I knew it, he was out of my arms and walking up the driveway to his car. My breathing was shaky and I struggled to open the door. My arms were so weak that the wood felt extra heavy…but I soon realized that it was because everyone was pressed against it eavesdropping. I sighed and quickly went around to the front door which I hardly ever entered. Lucky for me, it was unlocked, so I didn't have to make extra noise fumbling with my keys.

I walked around the house and crept quietly through the small living room until I could see into the kitchen where, sure enough, all the boys and Sam had an ear pressed against the door, straining to hear non-existent mumbles. I sighed and walked into the kitchen, however, they still didn't hear me. I looked over at Emily who was sitting at the tiny, yellow kitchen table drinking hot tea out of a chipped mug. She looked up at me and shrugged as if to say, "What are you gonna do? Boys will be boys." I tossed my keys onto the table which made a loud clattering noise, catching everyone's attention. All the guys looked over at me as I waved smugly, one hand on my hip.

Soon, all the boys had crowded around me and began mocking Nate, repeating his lines in horrid British accents and adding in some things to make him sound like an egotistical horndog. Whch he was, but just hardly. He was sweeter and funnier than he was perverted. My favorite line was from Paul where he said, "It's taking all my willpower not to drag you back to my love den and rape you like the awesome sex god I am in my super cool car that my rich adopted uncle bought me. Did I mention I wanna rape you?" he said.

"Oho! Very sophisticated, Paul. That's awesome!" I joked, my voice dripping with sarcasm. However, I was still slightly amused, so I gave him a high five. I looked over all the boys' heads and saw Jacob standing rigidly by the door being talked to by Sam. I could see his hands shaking slightly and I pushed through the guys so I was standing a few feet away from them.

"What, you have nothing to say?" I teased. I was actually pretty surprised that Jacob hadn't joined in the taunting like everyone else. His eyes met mine and they weren't Jacob's eyes. They were someone else's entirely. They were filled with a cold fire that seemed to burn me and I recoiled, a bit afraid of him. He stormed over to a chair, grabbed his bag and moved to the door. In his hurry to get out of the house, he nearly knocked me over. He scrunched his nose and looked down it at me in disgust.

"God, you smell like him," he growled as if it were the foulest stench on earth and I were nothing but a crushed bug on the sole of his boot. My heart fell and crashed into my stomach making me feel as if I had just been punched in the gut. He walked out and slammed the tiny, helpless door behind him causing the windows to rattle, making me give a start. I couldn't really get my breath back on track, as hard as I tried, and my heart, now lying somewhere in my middle regions, was hurting.

"Why is he so mad?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"He's not mad at you, he's mad at himself," Sam said, his deep, level voice beginning to reassure me. He put his arm around my shoulders and guided me to the table where he sat me down. "Now we need to talk about this Nate boy," Sam said, sitting next to me. "First of all, how old is he?" he asked seriously.

"Eighteen," I answered quietly, still trying to shake off Jacob's furious exit.

"Isn't he a freshman in college?" Emily questioned.

"He's taking a year sabbatical before college. He said he wants to stay home for a couple of months before going on to visit London. He's planning to go to Oxford, I think. He's really smart," I explained.

"Well if he left, wouldn't you be hurt?" Sam inquired. I frowned at him like that was a stupid question.

"We just met. I'm not about to beg him to stay here with me. I guess if we get serious enough, I would trust him not to go or at least have a serious conversation with me before leaving. We haven't even had our first date yet—"

"Which sounds like it's going to be tomorrow. Which you also agreed to without consulting us first," Emily pointed out.

"I figured you guys would be okay with it," I countered. The real reason was because I didn't want to sound like a baby in front of Nate. And also, I wasn't used to having to ask permission to do anything.

"Well, I'm not sure I want you going out with him," Emily said, her eyes widening as she leaned forward a bit. I frowned. I wasn't used to people telling me what I could and could not do. Without my mom at home who actually cared what kind of shenanigans I got into, I was used to being able to party until three in the morning and stumble into bed at four in the morning, slightly buzzed; no questions asked.

"And why is that?" I asked, a slight challenge in my voice.

"Boys, go home," Sam ordered without taking his eyes from Emily and I. The boys all groaned and sulked out of the house. When the kitchen was empty except for Sam, Emily and I, Emily began speaking again.

"Nate Katsaros is known for being quite a ladies' man. Rumor has it that he's actually a fugitive from the law," Emily whispered, as if Nate himself would hear us. I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Well that shows you where gossiping will get you—nowhere," I argued, narrowing my eyes and cocking an eyebrow. She sighed huffily and Sam reached across the table and took her hand while draping his large, muscled arm over the back of my chair. When Sam's skin came in contact with Emily's, I saw her visibly relax and release a breath I didn't know she had been holding.

"I just wanted you to know that he may not be the most trustworthy boy," she said. The concern in her voice broke me as I realized that she was only being a parent because she cared. I reached my hand across the table to take her other one and stroked the back of it with my thumb.

"Emily, I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. I may not be all that sure of what I'm doing, but I know enough not to get raped or have consensual sex on a first date, m'kay?" I reassured her. She sighed and looked at me worriedly. "M'kay?" I asked more severely now. She nodded. I smiled and let go of her hand. Standing, I kissed Sam on the forehead and walked around the table to kiss Emily as well.

"Good night, you guys. I'll see you in the morning," I promised as I walked up the stairs. "I wonder if I'm gonna see Jake in the morning," I mumbled to myself as I slipped out of my clothes, pulled on a white tank top and slept in that and my black boyshorts. It took me a while to go to sleep because couldn't stop thinking of Jacob's cold, fiery eyes. I had never imagined that Jake—_my Jake_—could ever look at anybody in that way, especially me. He looked so detached; so cruel. It was scary the way he glared at me and his words had cut through my heart like a knife. I could feel the wounds beginning reopen as I recalled this recent event and they stung as if somebody had poured lemon juice on them.

I tried desperately to get some rest, but my sleep was constantly interrupted by nightmares that were simply repeats of Jacob's outburst. And each time I woke up, the cuts in my heart hurt even worse. The fifth time I woke up, it was five-thirty and only half an hour until I had to get ready. I turned off my alarm clock and took thirty extra minutes in the shower before I dried off, blow dried my hair and threw on light wash jeans, a white tee and black and gray hightops before trooping downstairs. I had of course, expected to see Emily cooking breakfast over a hot stove, but instead when I came downstairs, I saw Emily helping Sam with his daily crossword puzzle. "Good morning, sweetheart," she trilled as I arrived in the kitchen.

"Good morning," I greeted as she got up and kissed me on the cheek.

"'Morning," Sam grunted as I kissed him on the cheek. "What's a six letter name for Pooh's gloomy friend?" he asked as I walked to the cabinet and pulled out a Toaster Strudel.

"Eeyore," Emily and I answered in unison.

"What kind of name is Eeyore? And how the hell do you spell it?" Sam asked. Taking a bite out of my apple, I reached over Sam's shoulder and scribbled the letters in the corresponding boxes for him. He nodded and continued with his crossword, satisfied. We ate our breakfast in almost complete silence, interrupted every now and again by one of Sam's crossword puzzle questions.

"You ready to go?" Emily asked as I threw away my Toaster Strudel wrapper. I looked at her as she stood up, my brow furrowed.

"Go? Where's Jacob?" I questioned as Emily grabbed her keys.

She and Sam exchanged a look before she sighed and said, "Ah…Jacob isn't taking you to school today. I am." I looked at her as she walked out the door and to her small, green Volkswagen. My mouth had dropped open and my breathing was light and fast. I could already feel the effects of withdrawal from Jacob's customary morning hug kicking in. I looked at Sam who just looked at me, shrugged his shoulders, and then proceeded with his crossword puzzle.

I sighed and rolled my eyes before leaving the house in a huff. I climbed into the passenger seat of Emily's car, sat back in my chair and crossed my arms, glaring out the rainy windshield. Emily frowned at me as she turned on the car—which responded with an unhealthy rumble—and blasted the heat. "You're not mad that I'm taking you to school, are you?" she asked me as she began backing out of the driveway. I looked over and saw that she was trying to keep the unharmed side of her face composed, the part that wasn't forever pulled into a menacing grimace, but was failing quite terribly. She was hurt that I didn't want her to drive me to school and must have felt neglected and forgotten.

I took a deep breath, uncrossed my arms and sat up in my chair. "No, I'm not mad. I'm more just upset that Jacob didn't take me. He always takes me, y'know? It's like our thing. It's our 'us' time where we get to just be goofy and talk and laugh and…" I realized I was rambling, so I took a deep breath before continuing. "He said it was his favorite part of the day. And it's mine too. So if that's true, why would he give that up just because I agreed to go on a date with someone else?" I wondered aloud.

"Jacob has a huge crush on you," Emily said calmly, as if she were simply telling me that the sun rises in the east. I looked over at her, shocked.

"What?" I asked doubtfully. Emily took her eyes from the road for just a second to roll her eyes at me.

"Please. You know that boy adores you, and you adore him right back. He was just upset that somebody else is taking you on a date before he could work up the nerve to ask you out himself. I think he's even more upset that it's Nate Katsaros," she said in her motherly tone of voice. I sighed and looked out the window.

"Yeah, well he's had months. There's no reason why he couldn't have asked me out himself," I reminded her glumly.

Emily sighed and cocked her head, letting her long, jet black hair spill out over her shoulders. "Sweetie, Jacob and Nate are two different boys," she started. "Nate's used to asking girls out and I guess, in a way, Jacob is too. But Jacob's never had to ask out a girl he really, really likes before."

"I guess…" I whined, still unconvinced, but trying to ignore the churning in the pit of my stomach that was a reaction of the part of me that so wanted this to be true.

"Or maybe he was just unsure if you'd say yes. Jacob isn't a boy who takes rejection very well," she added. I looked at her like she were crazy.

"Jacob? Nervous? What would he have to be nervous about?" I asked as we drove into the parking lot. "He's smart, funny, sweet, a great listener, warm, kind, hot, talented, a sweetheart—"

"Well, maybe you should tell him that," Emily signaled, pulling to a stop. I looked at her, confused by what she meant, but she nodded her head out my window and when I looked, I saw Jacob leaning against his truck, seeming embarrassed. I sighed and glared at him as he waved shyly. I looked over at Emily, opening my mouth to protest, but she was already holding out my bag.

"He's sorry," she mouthed. I narrowed my eyes at her, but she maintained her pleading look. Sighing, I kissed her on the cheek, grabbed my bag and got out of the car. She drove off and I walked over to Jacob, looking at the ground the whole time. When his feet came within my line of vision, I moved my eyes so that I was glaring up at him from under my eyelashes. However this time, I realized that his eyes were once again his eyes. They weren't cold and foreign. They were the eyes that warmed my core and made me stand straighter.

They were the eyes that I had familiarized with happiness and safety. And without a word, or even a gesture, he pulled me into his arms and I had instantly forgiven him. I stayed there for a few moments, not hugging him back or pulling away. I just let my body go limp and I sank into him, letting him keep his warm, protective arms around me as I breathed in his essence. "I don't know what happened last night and I hate myself for not taking you to school this morning. It was like I was on 'Calypso withdrawal'; something didn't feel right. I could hardly sleep last night knowing I had hurt you and I love you. I really do. Can you please forgive me?" he murmured into my hair. I sighed in relief that he wasn't at all mad at me anymore and I looked up at him.

The one thing that was becoming more and more confusing about all this was whether or not our "I love you"s were still platonic, or whether there was beginning to be some substance there.

He reminded me distinctly of a puppy dog as he gazed down at me with his warm, apologetic eyes. I couldn't help but smile and I stood on my tiptoes to kiss him on the nose. "You're forgiven," I promised, cupping the side of his face with one of my hands. He placed his much bigger hand on top of mine and held it there, making me smile.

"Let's get to class," he said smiling, making my insides melt. I nodded and we proceeded, hand-in-hand, to our lockers.


	12. The Perfect Night

_"I am just a small girl in a big world trying to find someone to love."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

I was sitting in my bedroom listening to my Pandora station. My insides were churning and I was trying to get my palms to stop sweating by using sheer mental force.

It wasn't working.

It was almost six, the time that Nate had said he would be here. I had just gotten off the phone with Konstantina who had given me the run-down on what Nate did every date. I could expect him to give me a single rose plucked out of one of the many bouquets that decorated their house. He would arrive about ten minutes late and then complain about traffic. He'd sneak me into a local club called "Psyche" where we'd dance until about ten. He'd then take me to a hotel and try to get into my pants and drop me off at home within minutes of my curfew.

"You're kind of bringing me down. I'm not all that sure I wanna go on this date anymore," I had whined.

"Hey, you asked, honey. You can probably forget about the hotel part, but other than that, he sticks to a certain routine. I don't remember one time that he's ever done anything different."

So now, not only was I nervous about dating a college guy, this college guy had a dating "routine" that he never divulged from. I was almost ready to call and cancel, lie that I had caught a twenty-four hour flu, but each time I had started to dial his number, I freaked and bailed out. Simply for something to do, I stood up and walked to my full length mirror.

I was dressed to kill in a hot gray cotton halter dress, the hem of which just made it mid- thigh and my black ankle boots I had worn that day. I had decided it would be best to just leave my hair in its natural wavy style. I was wearing medium sized silver hoop earrings and silver bangles on both arms. My make-up consisted of my best mascara to give my eyelashes a full dramatic look and gray and black smoky eye with brown tinted lip gloss. I had finished off the outfit with a black pinstriped fedora, my black leather jacket and a small silver clutch that held my phone, make-up (in case I needed a quick touch up), my wallet and some emergency mints.  
>And let's not forget Miss Marilyn Monroe's favorite perfume, trusty old Chanel No.5.<p>

As I was deciding whether or not to roll up the cuffs of my jacket or keep them rolled down, there was a knock on the door. I looked over and saw Emily poking her head in. "Nate is here sweetie," she announced. I glanced over at my clock on my bedside table and noticed that it was 5:58, two minutes before Nate said he would be here. Huh. I looked over at her, my heart ready to jump out of my mouth as I swallowed and nodded. "You look great," she assured me. I smiled feebly at her before she winked and headed back downstairs, closing the door behind her.

I gently tugged at the small picture of Marilyn Monroe that was tucked into the frame of my mirror. I kissed it once and said, "Wish me luck," before returning it to its original place. Taking a deep but shaky breath, I walked downstairs where, of course, all the boys—minus Jacob (he had decided to stay home so as to avoid my date)—were seated at the kitchen table, scrutinizing Nate. I saw him leaning against a counter, talking with Sam who looked to be somewhat impressed. As I stepped onto the linoleum floor, the heel of my boot clicked, drawing Nate's attention. He looked over from Sam and was breath taken. I couldn't help but smile at his dreamy expression as he walked over to me.

"Hi," he greeted breathlessly as he stood before me. I smiled and looked down at the ground before looking at him again.

"Hi," I replied simply. He was now smiling at me and making my insides churn uncontrollably. He was wearing a chocolate colored button up shirt that, sure enough, matched my eyes, and looked magnificent next to his creamy, sandy brown skin. He had paired it with dark jeans and black tennis shoes. His silky brown hair was shining even under the harsh fluorescent light of the kitchen. "You stuck to your promise," I said, tugging gently at the hem of his shirt. He took his eyes from my face for a moment to look down at his outfit.

"Oh. Yeah," he laughed, scratching the back of his head. I smiled at this vulnerable gesture.

"Are those for me?" I asked him, pointing to the bouquet of flowers he had hidden behind his back. He looked at them, and then back at me.

"Oh, no. These are for Jared," he joked, setting the flowers down in front of Jared who was sitting closest. He put on a mock face and stood up, sniffing the flowers.

"Oh my goodness! Nate! You shouldn't have!" he teased in a high pitched voice as he playfully hit Nate in the shoulder. Nate laughed.

"Gimme those," I ordered threateningly while smiling as I took the flowers from Jared's hand. He grinned and sat back down as I returned my attention to Nate. "Thank you," I murmured. The scent of all the different flowers hit my nose as I lightly sniffed them. There were roses, marigolds, daffodills (my favorite), lilies, violets, daisies and more. Another surprise. I had been expecting a single rose, but instead, I had received a bouquet full of flowers. I wondered if maybe tonight would be different than Konstatina had specified. "I really wanna put these in a vase," I said aloud.

"Way ahead of you," Emily said, taking the flowers from my hand and getting ready to cut them so they could go into the vase she had already filled with water.

"You ready to go?" Nate asked as I set the vase in the middle of the table. I nodded excitedly and he smiled at my enthusiasm. "Let's go then," he said. He held out an outstretched hand, which I gladly took and received goosebumps as my skin came in contact with his.

"Twelve o'clock curfew," Sam said from his corner. We both nodded.

"Of course, sir. She'll be here," Nate agreed politely. Sam nodded and we walked to the door.

"Night!" I trilled over my shoulder, addressing everyone.

"Good night! Have fun!" they all said back as I walked out the door, which Nate was holding open for me. He closed the door behind him and we started up the driveway to his shiny red car when we heard someone behind us shout, "Hey!" We both looked back and saw Paul sticking his head out the window. He tossed something at us and I saw a glint of blue before it landed at our feet. Upon inspection, I realized that it was a condom.

"No glove, no love!" he yelled cheerily with a thumbs up. Nate and I both laughed and I flipped him the bird.

"Up yours, Paul!" I blurted before he winked, closed the window and we walked to Nate's car, not picking up the condom. He courteously held my door open for me and I slid in, buckling my seatbelt as he walked around the car and got inside. Before putting the key in the igntion, he looked over at me and surveyed my entire outfit, but much slower than he had dared to inside.

"You look…amazing," he breathed with a smile as his eyes met mine once more. I grinned and tucked a piece of hair behind my head.

"You don't look so bad yourself," I complimented before he started the car and began driving. It was an unusually warm night in Forks, Washington, so he had the top of the car rolled down. I took off my hat and let my long hair fly behind me in the warm breeze. I couldn't help but feel amazingly beautiful, what with the way Nate was glancing at me every so often as we cruised down the practically empty road to our unknown destination.

"I'm sorry I got you such a big bouquet. I wasn't sure what kind of flowers you liked," Nate shouted over the wind and the music.

"Daffodills are my favorite," I yelled in response.

"Good! I put a lot of those in there, 'cause I remember you mentioning that your favorite color was yellow," he explained. I felt my heart get ready to jump for joy as I turned to look at him.

"You remembered?" I screamed. He frowned at me.

"What?" he bellowed over the noise.

"I said 'you remembered'?"

"I still can't hear you!" I sighed, but laughed. The situation was funny.

"I said—"

Before I could say anything, Nate turned down the music and began to put the top back up. "Damn wind," he muttered with a small smirk on his face as the car was complete once again. He looked over at me and opened his mouth to say something, but immediately stopped when he saw me. He looked like he was repressing a laugh. "Um…" he hummed as he looked at me.

"What?" I asked.

"Your…" He pointed to his head with a meaningful look, but I was still lost. I shook my head to let him know I wasn't understanding. He let out a laugh and then looked back at me. "Er…" he uttered. He reached over to my mirror and pulled it down. I looked at my reflection and saw that my hair was a mess. Little parts were sticking up here and there, making it looked like I had received an hour long noogie.

"Meh!" I squeaked, immediately trying to get it to look nice. Nate however was cracking up in the driver's seat. "It's not funny!" I insisted, giggling.

"It's cute! You're fine," he chuckled. I laughed as I put my hat back on. It looked much better, but I knew it wouldn't look like it did before Nate had started driving. We soon parked in a lot that I did not recognize. Turning off the car and rotating his upper body to look at me, he said, "Okay. Now what were you trying to say before the wind so rudely interrupted?" I laughed.

"I said 'you remembered'?" I repeated for what felt like the millionth time tonight. "I mean that my favorite color is yellow." He nodded.

"Well, I mean it's kind of hard to forget. I haven't met a lot of people whose favorite color is yellow and at first, I thought you were daft. But then you explained why—that yellow stands for optimism and hope—and I thought it was kind of brilliant," he explained. I smiled, my heart practically bursting with delight.

"What's your favorite color?" I asked him.

"Brown."

"Why?"

He put on a seductive smile and said, "Because it's the color of your eyes." I rolled my eyes and scoffed.

"Do you wanna go ahead and get all your corny pick-up lines out of your system before we get out of the car?" I asked. He abandoned his act and laughed.

"That didn't affect you at all?" he asked, seeming slightly intrigued. I shook my head and he laughed once more.  
>"Okay. Here we go," he started. He then looked over at me and put on an Elvis worthy face so that couldn't help but laugh. " Is there a mirror in your back pocket, because I can see myself in your pants.'The word of the day is legs. Let's go back to my place and spread the word. Girl, are your legs tired? 'Cause you been runnin' through my mind all day. " At this point, I had my hand in my palm looking out the window and I was laughing quietly to myself.<p>

"And of course, my personal favorite. Drumroll please!" he requested. I drummed my hands on the black dashboard while he shook out his hair and pretended to clean his teeth in his mirror as if he were getting ready for a big performance. " Let's do some math: Add a bed, subtract your clothes, divide your legs and let's multiply! " he finished with a dazzling smile. I applauded him and he pretended to bow and blow kisses to an imaginary crowd.

"So what's your favorite color really?" I asked him again. He looked over at me.

"Dark blue," he answered seriously.

"Why?"

He sighed as he contemplated his response. "I dunno. Dark blue just feels like it has soul. It's deep. It gives you a sense of peace, but it also makes you hyperaware of your surroundings. And I know that sounds corny as hell, but…"

_So maybe he does have actual interests_, I thought to myself. I looked him in his eyes and saw that they seemed to go deeper than I'd realized.

"Why are you staring at me like that?" he asked softly. And he didn't ask as if he was creeped out, but like he was truly curious.

"Because you may not be a shallow son of a bitch," I responded, my voice barely above a whisper. He gave me a gentle half smile before he got out of the car.

"Wait here. I have to set something up," he ordered before shooting me his fantastic smile and closing the door. I heard him grab something out of the trunk before jumping down onto the beach.

The beach?

Looking out my window, I noticed that we were parked at what seemed to be La Push beach. I wondered what on earth we were doing here. It was practically deserted save for the few birds that were flying. I could see the sun setting over the ocean, painting the evening sky a multitude of colors like purple and pink. The sky seemed to be on fire the way that the reds and oranges and yellows were streaked throughout it.

I fished my cell phone out of my purse and dialed Konstantina's number. "Yo!" she answered after the first two rings.

"The date isn't going at all like you said it would," I told her, getting straight to the point.

"Huh?" she muttered, not all that sure what I was talking about.

"Okay. First off, he showed up at my house at 5:58. Two minutes _before_ he said he'd be there, not ten minutes after," I started. "Then, he got me not a single rose, but a big ass arrangement of flowers; practically a garden. It looked like a rainbow. And I am telling you all of this in the parking lot of La Push Beach. Not in line for the club Psyche." I finished. She didn't say anything.

"Really?" was all she could manage to utter after all that.

"JK! No, I'm really in the club right now, dancing next to Nate on the dance floor with a giant martini in my free hand. He not only got me one rose, but a wilted one and he showed up at my doorstep in sweatpants and a nasty, grease stained t-shirt at 6:31," I said in the ebst valley girl accent I could manage. She was silent.

"So wait, are you or aren't you at Psyche?" she asked, playing dumb.

"TINA!" I scolded, calling her by her nickname, not able to help laughing.

"Well, I don't know what to tell you, hun. Enjoy it while it lasts 'cause only God knows if this is all a dream," she answered seriously. I soon saw Nate walking back to the car.

"Tina, sweetie, I gotta go," I whispered quickly.

"Have fun!" I heard her shout as I closed my phone.

"Who was that?" Nate asked, holding my door open for me.  
>"Emily. She just wanted to know how the date was going," I lied smoothly as I accepted Nate's hand and we started toward the beach. He hopped down onto the sand and held his arms out for me. I leaned forward and he caught me, then set me down next to him. "Thanks," I said, smiling up at him with my hands still on his shoulders.<p>

"You're welcome," he replied with a charming smile, his hands resting on my waist. Taking my hand again, we began walking down the beach. In about a minute, I saw a few small lights shining up ahead.

"What's that?" I asked, squinting to get a better look.

"Wait and see," he said vaguely, squeezing my hand.

"I'm not a very patient person," I confessed.

"Well you should learn then, shouldn't you, love?" he teased in a low voice as he pressed his forehead against mine while we were still walking. I scrunched up my nose and giggled before parting my face from his. Soon, I recognized just what Nate had gone to "set up." He had arranged for us a romantic moonlit dinner on the beach. There was a red and white checkered cloth spread smoothly on the soft sand, just a few yards away from the edge of the tide that lapped gently at the shore. A golden candelabra was sitting on the cloth, the orange and yellow fire perched on top of the tall, white wax candles, twinkling merrily in the night. A large platter of spaghetti could soon be seen sitting in the middle of the cloth accompanied by two silver forks and two champagne glasses that were filled to the brim with a bubbly, amber colored liquid.

My jaw dropped at the sight of all this and Nate merely chuckled next to me. I sat down on the sand, still marveling at the elaborate dinner and he sat across from me, on the other side of the tablecloth. "So whaddya think?" he asked. I looked up at him in astonishment and couldn't help but laugh.

"It's…amazing!" I breathed, returning my gaze once more to the lovely picnic. "And what made you decide on spaghetti?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow at him. He threw his hands in the air and smiled at me.

"It's the age old romantic dinner! It's priceless! Unoriginal, but priceless nonetheless," he explained slyly. I nodded as I laughed in agreement and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear after I removed my hat from my head, setting it down behind me.  
>"True, true," I agreed without argument.<p>

Nate lifted his champagne glass in the air and said, "To the most uncreative, but romantic first date ever." I threw my head back and laughed, the warm breeze catching my hair and causing it to lightly whip around my face as I looked back at Nate.

"To the most uncreative, but romantic first date ever," I toasted, raising my glass in the air as well. He smiled his brilliantly white smile at me, I doing the same, before we clinked the tops of our glasses together. I started bringing the drink to my lips when a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"This isn't…" I started, gesturing to my glass and shooting Nate a meaningful look. I wondered if this was possibly alcohol. He reached over to the tin cooler where two bottles were sitting in ice and showed me the label of one. It read "Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider." I smiled and nodded. Indeed, when I drank the liquid, it was sweet, tangy and bubbly all at the same time.

"Let's eat!" Nate said, picking up his fork. I smiled and began to eat the spaghetti along with him. After he took a bite, he made a face and pouted.

"What?" I asked him. I thought the spaghetti was delicious.

"I forgot the cheese," he whined apologetically. I laughed.

"It's really okay. The food is amazingly yummy," I assured him, already twisting my fork in the noodles before I took another bite.

"Did you just say 'yummy'?' he asked me, raising an eyebrow. I laughed and nodded.

"Yeah, you got problem with it?" I questioned. He shook his head and put his hands up in the air as if in surrender.

"Nope. No problem."

"Well good!" He laughed.

"Really? You think it tastes okay?" he inquired. I nodded as I chewed.

"Totally. Did you make this?" I asked him I set down my fork, replacing it with my glass of sparkling cider. He shrugged.

"Yeah," he admitted as if he didn't really want to. "I threw it together kind of last minute."

"It's really good," I told him, kicking off my boots and laying on my side, propping my head up in my hand. He took off his shoes as well and leaned back on his arms, looking out at the water.

"Hm."

He had a contemplative look on his face, so I asked him, "Are you okay?" He looked over at me and nodded.

"Yeah! Yeah, totally," he promised. He then sighed as he rolled over onto his side to face me. "There's just something I want to tell you, but I don't know how you'll take it." I frowned, seriously thinking about what could be so bad.

"You're not gay, are you?" I asked him cautiously. He burst out laughing hysterically. Slightly taken aback by this sudden outburst, I jumped, and then watched as his face turned red and his shoulders shook. After a few seconds, he wiped a tear from his eye and turned back to look at me.

"No. That's not it at all," he said, smiling at me. His face slowly became solemn again as he contemplated the fact that he still had yet to tell me what was so horrifying. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and said,

"I want to be a gourmet chef when I grow up." He then opened his eyes and looked at me.

I blinked at him before I burst out laughing. His face flushed and he looked away bashfully. "That's it?" I asked hysterically. He frowned at me, confused by my acceptance of this statement. "I mean I'm sitting here thinking that you're a serial killer or a dad or computer hacker, but you just want to be a chef?" I explained through my laughter. Nate smirked, obviously embarrassed by his melodramatics and shrugged.

"Nate, that's great!" I exclaimed. "Do you know where you're gonna go to school?"

"I'm thinking about this one culinary arts school in London. It's at Le Cordon Bleu International. I'm applying this year so that by the end of my sabbatical, I'll know what the hell to do with my mess of a life," he informed me. I nodded as I took another bite of the delicious food. Nate did so as well.

For the remainder of the meal, we just talked about us. Who we were, first date stuff. I noticed that both he—and I—avoided talk about our previous families until we had finished off all the spaghetti. We packed everything up, put the basket in the trunk of the car and began to walk along the moonlit beach, hand-in-hand.

The sand had a supernatural glow to it. It was whitish and the pebbles and rocks shined mysteriously. And although the water was dark, it looked inviting as the white froth on the crest of the waves peeked up to say hello to the moon before crashing on the shore. Then I asked the dreaded question:

"How did you become an orphan?"

There was silence. I was afraid I had said the wrong thing, ruined the whole night. But then Nate took a deep breath and said:

"My parents were killed in a fire when I was five. They were at work and I was at school. I'll never forget the day it happened. It was September 19, 1996. My kindergarten teacher, Ms. Grey, was writing on the blackboard. She was teaching us about addition. I was sitting in between Katie Franklin and John Parker. A man in a black police suit and hat came in and whispered something to Ms. Grey. She turned around and looked at me. Said that the man needed to see me. All the kids watched as I stood and followed the officer out of the room.

"My hands and knees were shaking. I had thought he had found out about the mean note I had written to Kelly Pickler because she wouldn't let me play House. Or maybe he had found out that I had taken some pipe cleaners from the class so that I would have some at home to play with. My parents were poor and couldn't afford much, so that would have been a luxury. But what he told me was much worse. The man walked outside with me and leaned against a railing. I was almost crying by this point, but I refused to. I wanted to look tough if I got busted for stealing pipe cleaners.

" 'You're Nate Henley, yes? Child of Kevin and Penelope Henley?' he asked me. I nodded defiantly, ready to fess up to stealing those red and yellow and pink and orange pipe cleaners. The man sighed and shook his head. He looked down at me and I noticed that his wide brown eyes didn't look scary and menacing, but sad and serene. 'You're so little…' he whispered. Then, leaning down so that his face was level with mine. He told me that my parents were dead. That they had died in a fire that had been started at work. Some idiot had set his cigarette on a wooden desk before leaving to go to the bathroom. My parents were one of the few unfortunate casualties of the accident.

"I didn't say anything. I didn't feel anything. I didn't know what to do. I felt empty. Although the sun was shining, it was cold. I just stared at the man's face, the only thing I was capable of doing was listing out his body parts like Ms. Grey told us. Chin…hair…ear…nose…eyes…. The man reached out his arms and pulled me into him. Setting me on his lap, he held me close and that's when I started crying. I started crying and I couldn't stop. I was sniveling all over this man I had never seen before, let alone met, and he was letting me. He was letting me cry all over his nice, ironed police suit and was holding me like I was his own kid.

"After a few minutes, he picked me up in his arms and, with me still crying, signed me out of school. We went for a ride in his police car and, when I wouldn't stop crying, he asked me if I wanted to turn the sirens on. I looked up at him, sniffing my nose, tears still leaking out of my eyes, but no longer sobbing hysterically. I nodded my head yes and climbed over onto his lap. He kept steering the car, and I pushed the button he told me to. Suddenly, the car was filled with piercing, screeching sounds. I knew that on top of the car, white and blue lights would be going off.

"The man laughed at my excited face when the noise started and he sped past stop lights and through traffic because, as a police car, he could do that. I laughed and bounced up and down making the police officer laugh too. We stopped by a diner and we ate and talked. Later on, the man took me to the police station and all the people on the force thought I was amazing. All the women couldn't stop holding me and feeding me things and Nikolas—that was the man's name—said that I was a ladies' man."

I snorted. "No kidding," I muttered. He laughed and then continued with his story.

"Nikolas and his wife, Katerina, adopted me and I met their daughter Konstantina. I later learned that the family was Greek and learned how to speak the language. We grew up together, a much happier family than should ever be acceptable." I laughed at this. "But it happened again," he said serenely. "Only this time, I was at home with Konstantina. We were watching T.V while playing a game of Scrabble when the doorbell rang. Tina ran to get it; our parents were supposed to have been home hours ago. I remember her scared voice when she appeared in the living room again, a policeman behind her, telling me an officer was here to see us.  
>"He asked us what I remember Nikolas asking me. 'Are you Konstantina and Nate Katsaros?' But he slipped up on the next question. Instead of saying, '<em>Are<em> your parents Nikolas and Katarina Katsaros, he asked us '_Were_ your parents Nikolas and Katerina Katsaros.' I could see something register in Tina's face and I felt it register in mine as well. _Oh no_, I thought. _Not again._

"'What do you mean _were_?' she asked shrilly. 'They _are_ our parents,' she insisted. I stayed quiet, my eyes trained on the stranger who was standing in our living room. He sounded sorry. But I could tell by his face he didn't give a damn. 'I'm afraid not anymore, miss,' he said in haughty, know-it-all voice. He told us of how they had been killed in a tragic car accident a couple of hours ago. He gave us no more details. Tina was still in the background shouting 'THEY _ARE_! THEY _ARE_!' the whole time. But the man had simply continued, just wanting to get this finished so that he could go home. Home to his family. 'I'm so sorry,' he lied. I wanted to punch him in his smug face and throw him out our window. I was getting ready to do so when Tina threw herself into my lap and began wailing uncontrollably. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back as she sobbed into my shirt. I had never in my life seen her so vulnerable.

"'Do you have anybody that you can stay with?' the jerk asked uninterestedly. 'Our uncle in Forks, Washington, U.S.A' I said coldly. 'He is—_was_—our mom's brother,' I choked out. When I said 'was,' Tina had looked up at me abruptly. She looked at me as though I had betrayed her by admitting, by accepting the fact that our parents were dead. 'If you give me the number, I can make the arrangements,' the stranger said, getting ready to write it down. He did so, bid us good night and left. Tina sat and cried in my arms all night, muttering 'They are…they are…'

"A few weeks later, we found ourselves on the doorstep of our uncle's house. He let us in and treated us kindly. He became a friend to us and Tina and I realized that it could have been much worse. He could have been a hateful person who didn't like children. So we sucked it up and tried—try—to go on with our lives as best we can." He had finally finished his story and by this point, I was sure we had walked at least half a mile.

My blood had run cold. These things should never happen to someone in real life. These were things that existed in horror movies and fables with morals like "Never steal pipe cleaners or all your beloved will die." But this was real. It was happening to someone I directly knew. _Two_ people I directly knew. This wasn't an idea conjured up by Nate's imagination. This was the story of his life.

But then I remembered my own story. One that was just as, if not, more horrific than even that. That there were people like us who had shitty luck.

"I am so sorry," I whispered to him. And I truly was. I felt connected to him, knowing that his childhood had been just as terrible as mine, whether he knew it or not.

"I'm not," he said with a quick squeeze of my hand, surprising me.

"Why not?" I asked him.

"Because I would have never met you," he said, a slight smile on his face.

"Is that another one of your pickup lines?" I asked him.

"No," he whispered.

And that was when I saw that he was beautiful. The way the moonlight made his hair shine, forming a halo around his head made him appear like an angel. My heart began to skip faster and faster in my chest. In order to dilute the moment, I reached over into the water and splashed some on his face. In his shock, he stumbled backwards a few steps, letting go of my hand. I stood up and smiled at him as he wiped the water from his face. Standing where the water kept lapping around my ankles, I cocked my head to the side, waiting for his response.

"You shouldn't have done that…" he warned playfully, a mischievous smile on his face. Once he began racing toward me, I shrieked and ran farther into the water, giggling. Soon, the hem of my dress was sitting in the ocean. I then turned around to face him and splashed some more water on him. He was only a few feet away from me and this stopped him for a moment before he retaliated with a splash of his own. The cool water hit my face and I closed my eyes against it. Without looking back at him, I turned my head and splashed water in his general direction. He was splashing me and laughing as well and after a while, I decided to run in the other direction.

"You can't run away, you prat!" he shouted through his laughter.

"Did you just call me a prat?" I giggled, looking over my shoulder at him as I kept running deeper and deeper into the water. I saw that he was catching up with me and so I tried to run faster.  
>"Yes, I did just call you a prat!" he chuckled. Looking back over my shoulder, I realized that he was just moments from catching me. In a desperate attempt to evade capture, I dived down underwater and began swimming. I heard a splash and looked behind me. Sure enough, Nate had come under too. Smiling, I tried to swim away, but he caught my ankle. I twisted around and tried to pull it free, but he used it as a rope to pull himself closer to me. Soon enough, he had grabbed my hand and we swam out as far as we could before our lugs were about to burst. We both surfaced, gasping for air.<p>

"Well that was fun," he said, still panting.

"But now we're both really wet," I pointed out. He cocked an eyebrow at me to let me know that what I just said could be easily misunderstood. Laughing, I dunked his head underwater and kept him under there for a couple of seconds. Eventually, he broke free and resurfaced, laughing.

"C'mon. I see a cove somewhere over there," he said. We both swam for about a minute until we came to a sheer rock face, in which there was a small cove just a few feet above the water. Nate climbed up first and then reached a hand down to help me. I joined him and we both crawled as far back as we could, which was only a few feet. We could see the water through the small opening, but nobody and nothing would be able to see us. He laid down and I laid on top of him and we both just watched the water and talked for a good hour or so until we dried off. By the time it was eleven thirty, Nate and I figured we had to start leaving. Nate climbed down and, once he got his feet firmly planted on a rock, he helped me out of the cove.

Then, to avoid getting wet again, he helped me across a small path of rocks that seemed to have been formed millions of years ago just for this specific moment. One time, I had almost tripped and went flying forward. My arms caught Nate around his neck and I felt my cheek press against his chest as his arms encircled my waist. Without moving my face, I looked up at him with my eyes only. "Are you okay?" he asked while smiling down at me. One of my feet was placed on a rock about two feet behind me while the other was dangling in the water. I moved them so that I was standing on the same rock as he was, my torso still parallel with the water, and then straightened up to face him. The rock we were sharing was so small that our bodies were pressed close together.

"Yeah," I whispered, my nose touching his. I couldn't help but stare at his lips and wonder how they would feel on mine…

"Um…we should get to the car…" he murmured quietly after swallowing. I could feel his skin heat up next to mine and I so wanted to kiss him and hold him and never let him go, but he took my hand and helped lead me the rest of the way to the car. On the ride home, we stayed silent and listened to music. But it wasn't an awkward silence. It was a chosen one. One where you don't mind not saying anything as long as you're with the right person. All too soon, we had arrived back home and, after getting my boots out of the trunk and putting them on, we walked to the front door, just because it was a longer ways away.

"Here we are. At your house," Nate said as we faced each other on the porch under the small yellow light that resided above the doorway.

"Yup," I said, not quite sure what else to say. Nate chuckled and looked at the ground, obviously amused by my lack of skill.

"Um, I had a really great time tonight, Calypso. Really. It was, by far, the best date I have ever had," he told me, stepping just a bit closer.

"Same. I really enjoyed it," I agreed as he moved even closer.

"That's good," he nodded, now less than an inch from me.

"Too bad we didn't catch the same noodle. We could've kissed," I said jokingly, trying lighten the mood. Nate wasn't having it this time though.

"Whoever said you need a noodle to kiss?"

Then, placing both of his hands on my waist, he slowly pulled me into him and craned his head until his lips were touching mine and I was gone. Sighing, I placed one hand on the back of his neck and the other on his shoulder, trying to press my body as close to him as I possibly could and then closer. I was in utter bliss as his lips moved with mine, and his tongue explored my mouth. I ran my hands up and down his chest and arms and when he gently sucked on my bottom lip, I couldn't help thinking, _Wow. He's really good at this_. I eventually locked my wrists around his neck, and he encircled me with his arms.

We stayed like that for some time, intertwined with one another until I was sure it was twelve o' clock. My phone began ringing in my clutch I was holding and, without removing my lips from his, I pulled out my phone with one hand and looked at who was calling over Nate's shoulder with one eye. Still kissing him, I saw that it was Sam. Unsure what to do, I stared at it for a few seconds until Nate, who still hadn't stopped kissing me or opened his eyes calmly reached behind his head, took my phone and my clutch and chucked them behind him into the bushes. I giggled and closed my eyes as he intertwined his fingers with mine and let our hands rest on his shoulder. I wrapped my other arm around his neck and we stayed like that for a while. We never stopped for breath because, after a while, it felt unnecessary. I would much rather die of suffocation from kissing Nate for too long than stop kissing him; I was sure he felt the same way too.

A few minutes later, I could hear my phone ringing again and knew that Sam was worrying inside the house, pacing the way he always does when he's anxious. Reluctantly prying my lips from Nate's, I murmured, "I really think I should get going now." He groaned and put both arms around my waist to pull me tighter to him.

"He can wait for just a few more minutes," Nate complained into my lips before he began fervently kissing me again. I was getting ready to protest again before his tongue slipped into my mouth, making my brain turn into mush. I let my fingers become entwined in his hair as he rubbed my back. The best part of the kiss wasn't the actual kissing, but the feel of his heart beating against mine. It was surreal, but believable; foreign but familiar; strange but…perfect.

Sure enough a few minutes later, my phone rang again. Nate groaned, making me smile and he straightened up. I turned so that I was leaning against the door. I grinned up at him as I twirled my keys around on my finger. "Sweet dreams, love," he said, smiling down at me.

"Sweet dreams," I said, grinning at an inside joke that only I understood. I remembered when Kyle had said the same thing and I had no idea what to say. Now I was prepared. _Thank you, Kyle_, I thought smugly to myself. I turned, opened the door and stepped inside. I turned to close it, but Nate stuck his foot in before I could. He opened the door wider so that I could poke my face through the opening. He leaned down and kissed me gently and it was good that I was leaning on the doorknob or I was sure I would've collapsed. He then pulled back just enough so that his lips were still grazing mine, but he could talk.

"When will I see you again?" he whispered. I pecked him once more on the mouth.

"I dunno." Peck. "What about—" Peck. "Tomorrow?" Long, but soft kiss.

"I guess I can—" Peck. "See you when I—" Peck. "Drop Tina—GET OUT HERE!" he growled playfully. I giggled as he pulled me onto the porch once more before holding me in his arms and we started kissing again. I pulled the door shut behind me and he pushed me against it. He braced his arms against the wall so that I could feel his weight, but it wasn't crushing me. We kissed for another minute before he pulled away just slightly so that he could talk. I stroked the back of his neck as he played with my hair, looking me in the eyes. "So I'll see you tomorrow?" he asked me. I nodded. "Hm…and you're sure I can't sleep over?" I laughed.

"I'm sure." I then pulled his face down to mine and began kissing him once more before I heard my phone ringing again. Frowning, Nate and I parted. "Grr…" I growled. He laughed and pecked me once more on the lips.

"I'll see you later." I reluctantly watched him walk to his car, get in, wave and drive away. I smiled and floated dreamily back into the house. Sam hung up when he saw me come in and I could see that he was angry and I did want to care, but I couldn't. I was still too giddy from my date.

"Where have you been?" Sam demanded as I sat down at the kitchen table and rested my head on my arms, still smiling. I realized that Jake was here, but I didn't pay him any attention. He, however, was staring at me quite strangely.

"On the back porch. We were here on time. We just stayed out there for about twenty minutes," I said a large, goofy and thoroughly unattractive grin plastered on mg face as I played with my hands.

"Doing what?" Jacob yelled. All I could was peek over my arm at him, giggle and bite my bottom lip. I knew that if I saw myself right now, I would puke at the girlyness I was exuding, but I was so hopelessly gone, I couldn't care less. Jake just rolled his eyes and frowned at the toaster.

"So I'm guessing you had a good time?" Emily laughed. At least she was happy for me. I nodded contentedly with a small, peaceful smile on my face and buried my head in my arms.

"I am so happy…" I said slowly. Emily laughed, but Sam and Jacob just snorted.

"So what did you guys do?" Emily asked. This sentence seemed to fill me with a jolt of energy because I hopped up from my chair and looked at her wide eyed.

"OH MY GOD! Emily, it was better than I could have EVER imagined! First we ate a dinner of spaghetti on the beach and talked! Then we took a moonlit walk and talked! Then we had a splash fight and then we swam to a cove and cuddled and talked! Then we walked back to the car and drove home! Then we kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and kissed, and KISSED and—NYAH!" I slumped back into my chair and closed my eyes, resting my head on the table. "Mmmmm…" I moaned gleefully.

"So you guys talked a lot?" Jacob said bitterly after a few moments of silence. I laughed strangely. Slowly, I stood and sighed.

"I am going to bed. I am tired. Nite!" I said before skipping happily up the stairs and humming to myself.


	13. Freak Week

_"Sex is a part of nature, I go along with nature."_

_-Marilyn Monroe_

My eyes slowly fluttered open to the minimal light that was coming in through my window. It was, of course, raining. I glumly watched as raindrop after raindrop hit my window, and rolled down the windowpane. Sighing, I rolled my head on my pillow and when I saw what was on my bedside table, I immediately grinned. Smiling at me and brightening up the room immensely was the large colorful bouquet of flowers Nate had gotten me the last week, two nights ago. I smiled as I reminisced about our perfect date. Glancing over at the clock, I saw that it was 5:58 A.M, and even that made me smile. Precisely sixty hours ago, Nate picked me up for our rendezvous.

Turning off my alarm before it rang, I got up, showered and got dressed. Because I was sure I was going to see Nate today, I spent a little more energy on my appearance. I wore a form fitting but low cut brown sweater that tapered nicely to my curves. I paired it with some blue jeans that hugged my legs tightly and that I knew lifted my butt a good amount. Finishing off the outfit with brown boots, I went to my mirror. I coated my lips with the same chocolate tinted lip-gloss I wore on Friday with light brown eye shadow, sparkly dark brown eyeliner and black mascara. I placed my heart shaped wooden earrings in my ears and my silver necklace with an amber pendant hanging from it around my neck.

As the finishing touch, I tied my hair in a messy-but-adorable braid and pinned it so that it would hang over my right shoulder all day. I then tied a white ribbon around the crown of my head so that the bow was perched neatly on the upper left side. "Goodness. Some days, I amaze even myself," I said, admiring how good I looked in the mirror.

Grabbing my new, white puffy jacket from the closet, I dashed downstairs. I was greeted with quite a surprise though: all six of the boys were sitting at the table eating omelets and bacon. "Good morning!" I trilled cheerfully, setting my coat on the back of an empty chair between Paul and Seth. I quickly pecked Jared on the cheek before walking over to the cabinets, pulling out a jar of Nutella and a spoon.

"Well someone sure is happy," Jared said, twisting around in his chair to look at me wide eyed.  
>"Did you have a nice date?" Quil sing-songed. Sitting up on the counter with the spoon full of Nutella still sticking out of my mouth, I nodded happily.<p>

"Did you use the condom I provided?" Paul asked as if he were for real. Taking the spoon out of my mouth with a popping noise, I smiled.

"No need for it!" I shouted excitedly. All the boys whooped and clapped as if this were the happiest news they had ever heard. I laughed and set down the chocolate-hazelnut paste for a moment to pour myself a glass of milk.

"No need for what?" Sam asked sleepily as he came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes. He pecked me on the cheek and gave Emily a short but passionate kiss good morning before walking to the cabinet and grabbing a large red mug.

"Paul's condom!" Embry chirped happily.

"There better not have been any need for it…" Sam huffed as he poured his coffee, cutting his eyes at me. I smiled a charming smile at him.

"There wasn't!" I assured him, never unlocking my eyes from his as I took a sip from my milk. He grunted in approval before stumbling to the table and sitting in my chair.

"You look awfully pretty today Calypso. Seeing Nate again?" Emily asked as she prepared another large plate of a dozen omelets because the boys had already finished the first two and were quickly making their way through a third.

"Hopefully! Plus today just felt like a 'be pretty' day. It's so glum outside and I'm always up for making the world a happier place via fashion," I said, curling into a ball on Jared's lap and snuggling my face against his warm chest. He laughed and stopped eating for a moment to put his arms around me.

"Such a saint," he joked before kissing me on the forehead. I smiled and wrapped my arms around him.

"What would the world do without me?" I sighed.

"And modest to boot!" he laughed. He went back to eating over my head, but I noticed that he was very careful not to make a mess on my pretty, shiny hair even after placing a napkin on top of it.

"Jakey-poo! You haven't said a word all morning!" Embry teased.

"A word," he muttered before eating again. Paul sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes.

"Whatever. He's just mad that Calypso was dating someone other than his whiny ass last night. Even more upset she's falling for the boy—" Paul was soon cut off by Jacob. This claim seemed to have made him quite guarded.

"I am not Paul! I'm just tired. I was afraid that Nate kid was gonna rape her or something. I couldn't get to sleep…" he defended. Jacob had spit out Nate's name like it was a hot pepper that he couldn't believe had been in his mouth for even a moment.

"Why are you guys all here anyway?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"It's our last meal here before Freak Week," Seth said simply before beginning to eat again. I noticed that both Emily and Sam became stiff and tense.

"What's Freak Week?" I asked.

"It's sex week for Emily and Sam," Embry said helpfully. My eyebrows shot up nearly off my face. "I think the basic idea is that they refrain from doing the deed all month until Freak Week, where they can have wild, unhinged, unadulterated, NC-17, nasty, freaky, shameless—"

"EMBRY!" Emily and Sam shouted in unison, stopping him there. Embry sunk down slightly in his chair under their intense glares.

"Sex." He then went back to quietly eating his breakfast. There was silence, but only because everyone but Sam and Emily were trying hard to keep from cracking up.

"So…erm…I'm not gonna be around for Freak Week, am I?"

Before I could barely finish my sentence, Sam and Emily both yelled, "NO!" I bit down on my lip hard to keep from falling out of my chair laughing and everyone else around the table was stuffing food into their mouths, tears in their eyes from trying so hard not to laugh.

"No, sweetie," Emily sighed exasperatedly. "You will be staying with Jacob and Billy for the week." I nodded, but for some reason unknown to me, couldn't make eye contact with Jacob. It was as if I was ashamed to look into his eyes after acting so giddy and lovestruck about Nate; as if I was afraid of what hidden feelings I would find there.

"I'ma go pack…" I said. I then climbed off of Jared's lap and headed upstairs to my room. Grabbing a duffel bag, I packed a week's worth of cute outfits, pajamas that simply consisted of a few pairs of sweats and too small tank tops, some shoes, toiletries, my Marilyn Monroe photo—I wouldn't go anywhere without it—and my Chanel No.5. After I had gotten it all packed and ready to go, I realized that I had a problem…

"JACOB!" I shouted from my bedroom. I don't know why I yelled his name; I'm sure it was just instinctual. But sure enough, a few seconds later he appeared at my doorway. I hadn't even heard him coming. It was strange how he—and all the other boys along with Sam—could do that. They were so big and menacing looking, but glided so quietly and gracefully. They were almost as poised as Alice Cullen.

"Yes?" Jacob said, looking at me with his hands in his pockets.

I put on a mock frowning face, kicked the bag and growled childishly, "It's too heavy." Jacob smiled and walked over to me.

Mocking me, he put on the same frowning face, tipped his head down the same way I had done and growled, "Okay. Do you want me to carry it downstairs for you?"

"Yes," I growled back, touching my forehead to his. We laughed and I hit him playfully in the chest, taking a step back. Jacob, with no trouble at all, lifted the duffel bag that I could hardly budge. Then, hiking down the stairs, we decided it was time to go.

"We're heading out," Jake said, grabbing my coat. Like a gentleman, he held it out for me to put my arms into. I kissed Sam on the forehead and Emily on the cheek, saying my goodbyes.

"See you in a week. Have fun!" I trilled walking out the door. Jacob and I hiked up the driveway to his truck. He opened my door for me and I slid in, throwing my coat in the back. He threw my book bag and duffel bag into the bed of the truck along with his backpack before climbing in the cab himself. Before turning on the car, a loud growling came from somewhere deep inside me. We both looked at my stomach, which soon growled again.  
>"Hungry, huh?" Jacob asked, cocking an eyebrow at me before starting the car and backing out of the driveway.<p>

"Well, I guess when you think about it, I only had a few spoonfuls of Nutella with some milk." He laughed.

"Well, we're early. We can stop by a coffee shop I found a few years ago. It's small, quiet and cheap," he contributed.

"Oh, so you can't take me to an expensive coffee shop?" I teased, pretending to be upset.

"Shut up," he laughed.

"I guess I'm just not worth more than a cheap, crumbly brownie to you then."

"Calypso, you're worth more than to me than you could possibly understand and, if I could, I would give you all you could possibly want from the world and more," he stated as simply as if he were telling me that one plus one is indeed two.

Is it just me, or did that sound like a declaration of love?

"Jake…I was just kidding," I said shakily, trying unsuccessfully to laugh it off.

"I know," he admitted. "But I'm not sure you really know how special you are or how much you deserve from the world. I just think it's nice to put it out there." We were silent for the remaining minute it took him to get to the coffee shop, park and get inside.

As soon as Jake opened the door for me, tiny bells went off above my head. The walls were made of wooden panels in varying shades of brown. Each panel had some type of Native American word or symbol or drawing carved in them. The floor was a plush, deep brown carpet, with orange, brown, yellow and red loveseats scattered around it instead of the traditional tables and chairs. There were about six other people in the shop, all drinking coffee and doing work on laptops or in journals.

Corrine Bailey Rae's voice drifted peacefully through the rafters, mingling with the warm scents of wood and vanilla and aroma-therapeutic candles and coffee. We walked to small bar setup in the back corner of the room. It was illuminated by a soft yellow light that hung directly above it. A long brown wooden counter on top of a glass display case curved from one wall to another, trapping the cashier in a small corner save for a door in the top of the counter that lifted to let the cashier out. It was flanked by a few red cushioned bar stools. The person manning the station was a tall black boy with a pretty, but masculine face. His short black hair was twisted into dozens of little curls atop his head, and a little bit of stubble could be seen growing on his jaw as we got closer. He looked to be about nineteen, but not older than that.

"Jacob! My man, what's up?" the boy greeted. Jacob smiled at him, they exchanged an elaborate handshake over the counter and we both sat down.

"Not much. Just grabbing a cup of coffee for me and a brownie for my girl before we get to school," he said. My heart and stomach jumped when he introduced me as his "girl." It just felt right for me to be introduced as "Jacob's girl." To be known as that. It made me deeply content.

"Can I get some coffee too, Jacob?" I asked in a tone that hopefully suggested that it wasn't a necessity. He looked through the pockets of his wallet and sighed.

"Sweetie, I don't have enough," he apologized. He sounded truly sorry too. It made me feel bad for even asking him in the first place.

"Hun, I'll pay for myself. It's no problem," I said. I began to pull out my Invader Zim wallet and take out the money when Jacob put his hand over it.

"You wanna just share?" he suggested, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me onto his lap. I smiled and snuggled closer to him while nodding.

"You know what? You guys can just have it free," Jacob's friend offered

"Oh, dude, you don't have to do that," Jacob insisted, though I could hear the appreciation in his voice.

"Nah, man, it's my pleasure! Just think of it as me paying you back for all the tips you've been giving me these past few years," the boy persisted with a dazzlingly white smile over his shoulder. "So you're Jacob's 'girl,' huh?" he asked as he pulled a large, chocolatey brownie from the display shelf, placed it on a small white plate and set it in front of me. I shrugged as I broke off a piece of it and ate it. The chocolate chunks melted on my tongue and the brownie seemed to fall apart with just the slightest provocation.  
>"Not really. He calls me that. We're just friends," I informed the guy after I was finished savoring my brownie chunk.<p>

"Well in that case…" he purred. He stuck his hand out for me to shake. "I'm Damon." I couldn't help but laugh at the way his brown eyes glinted mischievously as my hand made contact with his.

"I'm Calypso," I introduced myself.

"Calypso? Like from The Odyssey?" I nodded. "You like to read?" I shrugged.

"I guess."

"She reads all the time," Jacob piped up. "It's kind of nerdy actually." I reached behind and playfully punched him in the shoulder. "In a cute way!" he added quickly. Damon laughed, shaking his head and handing us our coffee.

"So you go to school at La Push?" he asked me.

"I just transferred from New York this year actually," I told him.

"And you're a senior?" he tried to clarify, raising his eyebrows at me. I nodded. He sucked in a quick breath through his teeth and frowned. "That's gotta be tough. What college are you planning on going to?" I took a sip of coffee, set my cup on the counter and adjusted my seat on Jacob's lap.

"I don't know yet. Probably something for musical theater—I did that for a while when I was little—but beyond that, I'm lost. What about you?" I questioned. He shook his head.

"I'm not going to college. I'm an artist. A tortured soul," he joked dramatically. I smiled and nodded.

"Any work you'd be interested in letting us see?" I asked casually. I felt Jacob shake his head from behind me.

"Damon's no good at sharing his work. I've been coming in here the past few years and he still has yet to show me a doodle," Jake piped. I was going to give it up—I didn't want to make him share if he wasn't comfortable with it—but Damon was looking at me with his eyes narrowed, as if he was considering something.

"I'll be right back," he said vaguely. He then disappeared through a door in the wall behind the counter. I looked around at Jacob who did nothing but shrug. A few seconds later, Damon emerged from the dark room, closing the door behind him. He stopped in front of us, clutching a large white portfolio to his chest. His pretty brown eyes darted suspiciously between the two of us as if he still hadn't decided if we were worthy yet.

"This is very important to me. It is my girlfriend, my life, my family…it is _me_," he began seriously. "I would like you to please remove your food and sanitize your hands—" Jacob and I scurried to follow his directions, pushing our food aside quickly and rubbing hand sanitizer into our skin. "And please, just…be nice," he finished. And with a deep breath, he placed the portfolio in front of us.

Opening the cover the slowly, the first drawing that I saw, I was breath taken. It was a simple up close view of an apple on a tree, but it was the most beautiful drawing of an apple I had ever seen. It was done in oil pastel and I was sure almost every single color you could possibly use to draw one apple was used. The shine on the apple was just right and the red—perfectly blended with oranges and yellows to reflect the color of the surroundings that we couldn't see—made the apple look yummy enough to lift off of the page and bite into. The leaves on the tree were dark green with other shades of green swirled through out and I could tell that each stroke, each color, each vivid line was there for its own special purpose. I could see Damon's artistic dedication shining through the picture as blindingly real as the sun.

Turning the page, sad to leave the apple but eager to see more, there was a drawing of a woman. She was an average looking woman, nothing special about her, sitting at the kitchen table in blue nurse's scrubs. She looked to be in her early to mid-forties and was slumped tiredly over a small table in a ramshackle kitchen. She had her head in her hands and looked ready to cry or sleep or collapse, but she also looked determined to finish whatever was on the table, which looked like bills, some with red stamps on them.

She seemed to have some of Damon's face—his nose, his cheekbones, his forehead—and I came to the conclusion that this woman was his mother. But I didn't only think this because of the physical reasons, but because of the way he had depicted her. The setting sun outside the dirty window illuminated her, making her glow and appear somewhat angelic. The lines in her face were drawn with such precision and care for detail that I had to wonder about the story behind each one. The way she held herself, although she was exhausted and obviously stressed, was fierce. It was a way that let you know not to mess with her because she meant business.

And, one last thing I couldn't help but take note of before Jacob and I turned the page, looking for more art for our eyes and brain to feed on, were the fluffy pink bunny slippers that were on her feet under the table. They were so out of place and cheerful in this picture that they seemed a key point in the drawing. I reminded myself to ask Damon about them later.

Picture after picture, story after story, Jacob and I couldn't get enough. Each portrait was made with just as much thought and care and refinement as the last, making the viewer want to think about it for just as long as it had taken Damon to draw it. I'm sure Jake and I would have stayed there all day if Damon hadn't reminded us that school started in fifteen minutes and we should probably start heading out soon.

"Dude…these are amazing," Jacob breathed, closing the portfolio.

"Damon, you are quite possibly the greatest visual artist of our generation," I added, swirly, vivid colors from the pictures still floating in front of my eyes.

"Do you really think they're that good?" he asked, scratching the back of his head and leaning on the counter. "I mean, it's just oil pastels."

"I promise you, I will never look at oil pastels in the same way again!" I vowed. Jacob and Damon laughed.

"Well…" Damon started, cocking his head and looking at the closed portfolio. "There's one exhibit coming up at the SAM, the art museum in Seattle, for young artists. I just have to send in an application and a couple pieces of work—"

"Send the mom!" I shouted before I even knew what I was doing. Jacob and Damon looked at me skeptically. To explain, I flipped open to the second picture of the tired woman at the table. "The picture of your mom," I repeated quietly. "Send that one in."

"How did you know that was my mom?" he asked incredulously. I shrugged.

"The way you drew her, it just…the precision and delicacy…the love just flew off the page and hit you in the face," I explained insufficiently.  
>"Hm," he muttered, scrunching his face up and looking at the picture.<p>

"Well, we should probably get going," Jacob said, starting to get up. I hopped off his leg and stood, him following my lead. He and Damon exchanged their handshake, I said goodbye and Jacob and I headed out. School was only five minutes away, so we still got there plenty of time before the first bell rang. Jacob parked the car, but made no motion to get out.

"What?" I asked, turning my body so I could look at him. He turned his eyes to me.

"How did you get him to show us his pictures?" Jacob seemed thoroughly puzzled, what with his eyebrows scrunched and his confused tone of voice. I shrugged. "I guess he just trusted me…or…thought I was cool…or…something?" I kept faltering under his intense gaze because I couldn't be sure if I was answering in the way he wanted me to. Jacob shrugged, his face becoming passive once again.

"Maybe he just thought you were pretty," he concluded as he hopped out of the car.

"That can't have been it! He would've shown his art to every pretty girl who walked in there!" I protested as I he helped me out of the car. Jacob smiled at my childish behavior and let his arms encircle my waist.

"That could very well be his default portfolio for all the hot girls he meets," he teased. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled myself closer to him so that I could feel his heat invading my skin.

Smiling up at him, I said in a joking voice, "He probably just fell in love with me at first sight."

"Well, that's not unbelievable. I'm sure plenty of guys have fallen in love with you at first sight. In fact, I know one," he murmured. My heart began to beat faster, almost ready to fly out of my chest. Was he saying what I think he was saying?

Swallowing, I asked, "Do you know him well?" Jacob, whose breathing had gotten a bit shallower, nodded slowly.

"We're pretty much one person," he exhaled.

"Who is it?" I questioned, my voice barely above a whisper. I was shaking now, almost ready to collapse, waiting for his lips to form the name I wanted—needed —to hear.

"It's—"

Just before he could say the name, he was cut off by a loud honking noise from behind us. We both jumped apart and looked around to see a shiny red convertible pulling up to the curb. Once I saw Nate's smiling face, I couldn't help but turn all my attention to him. Grinning, I jogged toward the car. Beaming like crazy, he stepped out of the vehicle and caught me happily in his arms when I reached him. I giggled as he spun me around and buried my face in his neck to keep from getting too dizzy.

Once he set me down, he crashed his lips against mine and kissed me gently, but passionately, making me swoon. After he pulled away, the world seemed to spin. "Hi," he whispered weakly, as if the kiss had affected him just as much as it did me. I chuckled softly, burying my face in his chest.

"Hi," I greeted him as I breathed in the fresh smell of his body wash.

"I dreamed about you," he whispered into my hair, his warm breath tickling my scalp. "I hope that's not creepy," he added with a nervous laugh. I laughed along with him and the sound of our voices seemed to mingle and create a beautiful melody that only seemed to be beautiful to us.

"HEY! Can you guys try and make me puke from your adorable-ness later?" we heard a voice behind us say. Looking around and without letting go of Nate, I saw Konstantina standing there with a bored look on her face.

"Shut up, Tina. Go inside," Nate ordered playfully. Konstantina crossed her arms and stomped her foot.

"No! I'm waiting for Calypso!" she shouted.

"Well, she's with me right now, so you'll have to wait," he reprimanded as calmly as if she were a stubborn three-year-old. Then, returning his attention to me, he asked, "Are you free after-school tomorrow? I convinced my uncle to consider hiring a new roller-girl for the diner."

"Are you serious?" I shrieked, hopping backwards and bringing my hands up to my mouth to keep from screaming.

Here in Forks, Washington—actually, in both Port Angeles and Forks—the best job an attractive girl between the ages of sixteen and twenty-three was becoming a roller-girl for Lenny's Diner. The roller-girls were considered to be the prettiest and friendliest girls in both cities. The diner was known for its good service and even greater food. It was a retro diner on the water themed around the fifties. The girls wore red, high waisted short-shorts, yellow, tight, short sleeved shirts with plunging scoop necks and hems that stopped just below their ribcage. All the orders were delivered on roller skates. Every girl had her hair tied back in a high ponytail and had several songs they must learn to remember, the most popular of them being "Happy Birthday," Marilyn Monroe style.

The girls got extremely good pay too. No one knew quite why; some people thought it had to do with parading around in skimpy outfits and some though it was for putting up with all the nasty truckers that came into the diner. But the roller-girls got paid twenty bucks an hour. That was the main reason I needed it. I had a little cash saved up, but if I was expecting to go to any college at all, I needed lots of money and fast.

"Nate, that's AWESOME!" I shouted, tackling him with another hug. He nearly fell over when I launched myself on him, but once he caught himself, he laughed with me and put his arms around my torso.

"Well you're obviously excited," he stated. Beaming, I pulled my face back just enough so that I could nod and speak, kissing him between words.

"Yes! Thank you—thank you—thank you—thank you—thank you—thank you…" I kissed him hard and long before shouting "THANK YOU!" With that, I grabbed Tina's hand and ran with her to the school.

"You're welcome!" Nate shouted after me, laughing. I saw Jared and Kim waiting for us at the by the door, hand-in-hand.

"You and Nate sure do kiss a lot for such a new couple," Jared pointed out. Letting go of Tina's hand, I pounced on his back, knowing he would catch me.

"I'M GONNA BE A ROLLER-GIRL!" I yelled as he walked with me down the hall.

"THAT'S EXCITING!" he shouted, spinning around really fast while I giggled.  
>"Oof," I huffed when my butt hit the ground because I accidentally let go of Jared's neck.<p>

"Do you have the job? Or is it just an interview?" Kim asked. Scrambling up, I ran to catch up with the others and grabbed her hand with both of mine.

"It's actually just a interview, but I'm so excited and determined that I HAVE to get it!" I exclaimed, jumping up and down beside while holding her hand as we walked. "Plus, Konstantina's my best friend and I'm currently dating Nate, so that has to count for something—"

"Wait," I heard a voice say from a few feet behind us. We all stopped and looked around. And there, standing in front of her locker mirror applying coats of shimmery pink lipgloss was the one, the only…

Jennifer Keelan.

"You're dating Nate Katsaros? _The_ Nate Katsaros?" she asked.

"Yeah…what's it to you?" I asked, calming down as narrowed my eyes, crossed my arms and took a few step towards her.

"Are you a virgin?" she asked.

"Yes…" She gave me a quick once over, let out a light laugh and returned to glossing her lips.

"Well you won't be for long," she sneered. "He's notorious for being a hit-it-and-quit-it kind of guy," she said ending with a pop of her mouth, the capping of her gloss and the slamming of her locker.

"Hey!" a voice shouted from our right. Konstantina was glaring at Jennifer quite fiercely. "That's my brother you're talking about!"

"Sorry. Forgot. But the history speaks for itself," Jennifer said, not sounding sorry at all.

"History?" I snorted, becoming upset. "Last time I checked, Nate's sex life was never mentioned in any textbook. What you're basing your claims off of are rumors. That wouldn't necessarily fly in debate club."  
>"Oh! Well whooptie-doo! 'Cause that's useful information for captain of the cheerleading team," she said sarcastically. "Whoops! And I almost forgot!" she added cheerily. Pulling three pieces of paper out of her chunky pink Prada bag, she handed two to Konstantina and one to me. "One of those is for Nate," she said to Tina. "Party at my house on Wednesday. See you there!" She air-kissed each of us once with a loud "MWA!" sound before shouting, "Love you!" She then walked to Jared, placed the paper on his chest and held it there with her perfectly manicured hand.<p>

"I'll see you there," she purred seductively before winking at him and walking away.

Once Jared shook of the shock of just being flirted with by a girl he couldn't care less for, he turned around said, "You forgot one for Kim." Jennifer stopped, spared a glance over her shoulder and gave Kim a once-over. Based on the disgusted expression on Jennifer's face, Kim didn't pass the visual test.

Then, without addressing Jared, but Kim herself, said, "No I didn't." And then she walked on, happily handing out flyers to people she deemed worthy enough to step foot in her beautiful house.

"Well that party better be so damn magical that there's a chocolate fountain coming out of a unicorn's ass and is being dee-jayed by a fucking leprechaun because this bitch sure is being extra selective about her shit," Konstantina stated. What I thought was magical was the way she so smoothly used six different curse words in one sentence. At the same time, Jared, Tina and I all crumpled up our party invites and tossed them in the nearest wastebasket.


End file.
